Be the Voice that Makes the Desparately Needed Change!

FYI: Please sign petition (click on the link)

The Peruvian government has pushed through legislation that could allow extractive and large-scale farming companies to rapidly destroy their Amazon rainforest.

Indigenous peoples have peacefully protested for two months demanding their lawful say in decrees that will contribute to the devastation of the Amazon's ecology and peoples, and be disastrous for the global climate. But last weekend President Garcia responded: sending in special forces to suppress protests in violent clashes, and labelling the protesters as terrorists.

These indigenous groups are on the frontline of the struggle to protect our earth -- Let's stand with them and call on President Alan Garcia (who is widely known to be sensitive to his international reputation) to immediately stop the violence and open up dialogue. Click below to sign the urgent global petition and a prominent and well-respected Latin-American politician will deliver it to the government on our behalf.

Please Sign Petition Click This Link Now!

More than 70 per cent of the Peruvian Amazon is now up for grabs. Giant oil and gas companies, like the Anglo-French Perenco and the North Americans ConocoPhillips and Talisman Energy, have already pledged multi-billionaire investments in the region. These extractive industries have a very poor record of bringing benefits to local people and preserving the environment in developing countries - which is why indigenous groups are asking for internationally-recognized rights to consultation on the new laws.

For decades the world and indigenous peoples have watched as extractive industries devastated the rainforest that is home to some and a vital treasure to us all (some climate scientists call the Amazon the "lungs of the planet" - breathing in the carbon emissions that cause global warming and producing oxygen).

The protests in Peru are the biggest yet and the most desperate, we can't afford to let them fail. Sign the petition, and encourage your friends and family to join us, so we can help bring justice to the indigenous peoples of Peru and prevent further acts of violence from all parties.

http://www.avaaz.org/en/peru_stop_violence/97.php?cl_tta_sign=c4bd4829b2c90f835ca6cf60127e965e or CLICK HERE

In solidarity,

Luis, Paula, Alice, Ricken, Graziela, Ben, Brett, Iain, Pascal, Raj, Taren and the entire Avaaz team.

Sources:

# Civilians and police killed: Human rights lawyers accuse the government of a cover-up, BBC, 10 June:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8092453.stm

# Civil Society Condemns Massacre of Indigenous People in Peru, 8 June:
http://www.globalwitness.org/media_library_detail.php/765/en/global_witness_condems_violence_in_peru

# On Peru's rift over economic policy and the controversial free trade agreement with the US , Reuters, 9 June:
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN09374943

# Research Article: Oil and Gas Projects in the Western Amazon: Threats to Wilderness, Biodiversity, and Indigenous Peoples, M. Finer et al:
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi/10.1371/journal.pone.0002932

# Oil companies ‘should withdraw’ as Peru ‘faces its Tiananmen’, Survival International, 8 June:
http://www.survival-international.org/news/4640

# Peru's Amazon oil deals denounced, BBC News, 3 February:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6326741.stm



ABOUT AVAAZ
Avaaz.org is an independent, not-for-profit global campaigning organization that works to ensure that the views and values of the world's people inform global decision-making. (Avaaz means "voice" in many languages.) Avaaz receives no money from governments or corporations, and is staffed by a global team based in Ottawa, London, Rio de Janeiro, New York, Buenos Aires, and Geneva. Call us at: +1 888 922 8229 or +55 21 2509 0368



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"27 dead as blockade broken up by authorities" Peru, June 5, 2009

Army units employed to stop the protest of the indigenous people in Peru who were attempting to block the highway to resist the violation of their land rights. See survival news edition: http://www.survival-international.org/news/4635

June 8, Dozens Dead as Amazon Indigenous people protest the laws that open up their rainforest to oil companies.
See Survival-Internation.org news update: http://www.survival-international.org/news/4640