Peru News

Here's a round-up of the Spanish-language news from Peru.

Human rights organisation APRODEH is claiming that there is at least 61 disappearances arising from the events of the past week at Bagua. According to lawyer Juan José Quispe, these people are not included in the official list of the dead or wounded. I'm sure publicising this is going to make APRODEH even more popular with the authorities - let's hope all their paperwork is in order.

Al menos 61 personas estan desaparecidos, informa APRODEH (La Republica)

The government has closed down a radio station, La Voz de la Selva, which was reporting on events at Bagua in a manner critical of the state. Both its director and Peru's journalists' association, have condemned the action as politically-motivated - which let's face it, it blatantly is, no matter what the official excuse is.

Gobierno cancela licencia a Radio La Voz de Bagua (La Republica)

Indigenous members of parliament have been suspended for protesting recent events in the Congress building.

Parliamentarios nacionalistas sancionados no ofreceran disculpas (La Republica)

Alan Garcia has claimed that the police officers involved in the violence in Bagua were victims of "genocide" (a genocide of the police - what on earth does that even mean?!) committed by those who want to hand over Peru to foreign governments. These are the words of a politician who sees a crisis as a good opportunity to seize more power.

Alan Garcia afirma que existio un "genocidio de policias" en Bagua (El Comercio)

*Update* - Also, I'd like to draw attention to this slide show from Caretas showing images of the dead police offers (warning: very strong content, particularly for those of us not used to media showing close-up images of dead bodies - despite the strange use of black boxes to censor some areas which have appearently been deemed unsuitable).

Finally, and on a slightly different topic, 8 Shining Path camps have apparently been destroyed by the armed forces.

Ocho campamentos de Sendero Luminoso fueron destruidos por fuerzas combinadas en el VRAE (El Comercio)