Letter to the President of Peru

Jim Steitz

357 Vista Street Apt. 5

Ashland, OR 97520

United States of America

 

June 17, 2009

 

S.E. Alan Garcia
Presidente de la República del Perú
Palacio de Gobierno
Plaza de Armas
Lima 1, Peru

 

Dear President Garcia,

 

I write to demand that the government of Peru cease and desist its genocidal campaign against  
the native people and lands of the Amazon. You have explicitly declared that the native peoples are second-class citizens, and that they may be forcibly evicted from their ancestral lands. This is a blatant violation of human rights, and contravenes the international standards of human rights that the western world has adopted over the past 50 years. The government is Peru is not allowed by the common-law standards of humanity to viciously assault a native people and their lands in this manner.

 

I have learned to my horror that the Peruvian police have massacred native Peruvians who were exercising their legitimate property rights over their native ancestral rainforest home. You are responsible for the deaths of at least 25 native people at the "Curva del Diablo" site near Bagua Grande, where native peoples were enforcing their legitimate property rights. These native people have issued you no license or permission to exploit their lands, and you have no right to trespass upon sovereign native territory. You have been quoted as saying that a small number of natives cannot resist the wishes of the much larger population of Peruvians. You cannot suspend the human and environmental rights of a native people by invoking the surrounding nation's greater population size. The rights of the native people of Peru are not dependent upon their demographic power. They are absolute human rights and not subject to political interference by officials such as yourself.

 

Moreover, the Amazon rainforest of Peru is a critical component of the Earth's life-support system. The destruction of the Peruvian Amazon rainforest is tantamount to an act of aggression against all humans whose lungs inhale the oxygen from this forest. Neither Peru nor any multinational corporation has any right to destroy the ecosystem that is a common endowment of all humanity. The Peruvian rainforest is part of the Amazon ecosystem that plays a key role in the regulation of Earth's atmospheric chemistry, weather, and hydrologic cycle. These functions are of vastly greater value than any amount of lumber, oil, or minerals that could be extracted from the Amazon rainforest. Humanity depends upon these forests for its survival, and their presence inside Peru's borders confers no right upon Peru to destroy them.

 

Your attempt to open Peru's native lands to exploitation by multinational corporations is illegal, illegitimate, and cannot subordinate the rights of the native Peruvians to lands they have inhabited since time immemorial. The sustainable inhabitation of a land for generations beyond memory endows the natives of Peru with senior rights to the continued enjoyment and utilization of these lands, free from the interference of foreign peoples, including the current Peruvian government. The native peoples of Peru are not a party to the "free trade" agreement with the US, and you cannot invoke this treaty in attempting to seize their land and resources.

 

As a citizen of our world, I demand that you immediately order a stop to the violence against native Peruvians, including the government troops that are believed to plan another massacre in Achuar territory. I further demand that you respect and acknowledge the rights of native Peruvians to control the lands they have inhabited since time immemorial, and to ask their permission and consultation before issuing any legal rights to corporations seeking the resources found thereupon.

 

Sincerely,

 

 

 

Jim Steitz

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