Meeting on Peruvian Violence in London

From a Peru Support Group mail:

The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Peru, the Peru Support Group & CAFOD are jointly organising a public meeting on:

‘The Recent Violence in the Peruvian Amazon’

Venue: Committee Room 9, Palace of Westminster

Please allow about 20 minutes to pass through security checks. Members of the public enter via the Visitors’ Entrance, next to St Stephens Entrance, the Palace of Westminster.

Date: Monday 22nd June 2009

Time: 7.30pm

Please e-mail the Peru Support Group to confirm your attendance (info@perusupportgroup.org.uk).

Speakers will include the only international witnesses to the events, together with other participants who will provide a political and legal analysis of the situation.

At the beginning of June, Peru witnessed probably the worse loss of life since the end of the country’s internal armed conflict in 2000, following protests by indigenous groups against a series of legislative decrees, collectively known as the 'Law of the Jungle' (Ley de la Selva). It has been reported that some 50 people (and the estimates continue to rise), both indigenous protestors and members of security forces, have died.

Indigenous groups, principally in the Amazon region of the country, have been protesting since April 9^th against a legislative package which was approved last year by President Alan García to make Peruvian law conform to the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United States.

The current reaction of President Alan García’s government reflects its ongoing determination to regenerate the Peruvian economy by promoting private, particularly foreign investment, with an emphasis on extractives industries.