Friday Strike Update

Where are we? Still in Tarapoto. Ken called Yurimaguas today and talked with Pancho. He said that the talks between the Congress and the Indigenous delegation had been going well and then a comment was made that started a fight. So, now the talks are postponed until next Wednesday. So, to tell you the truth we don't have a clue as to when the strike will be over.

Unless there is a major development there will be no more blogs on this subject. It's getting old and am sure you are tired of it, too. :)

Day 46 of Indigenous Strike

Good news! Tarapoto has received gasoline for the generator from another source. We have electricity still. We are very thankful.

The other news is that the strike continues. Ken talked to Pancho today and he says that there are so many indigenous participants that they spread from kilometer 4 to kilometer 24 of the highway between Yurimaguas and Tarapoto. That is 15.5 miles. That's alot of people. Wish we could see from the air and take a photo. He also said that the strike continues. They will be sending a delegation to Lima for dialog on Wednesday. We are hopeful for some news of the end soon. We did assure him that we are in support of their strike and are in our prayers.

Please continue to uphold these men and women in prayer. It is a hard battle for them and a sacrifice, but they are standing up for their rights.

STRIKE Update

The strike continues. There is much division in Yurimaguas. A leftist political group and the Indigenous can't seem to come to an agreement in ending the strike. Truthfully, we don't know if there is even dialog going on between them and the government. Today the market was allowed to open for a few hours for people to buy food then everything closed again. Looks like they are in for the long haul.

The threat now is that they are not replenishing the gasoline supply to the generators of the cities which will mean sometime between now and Monday we will be in blackout conditions unless the strike is resolved. We are readying flashlights and batteries and water.

Please pray for this to be over. It's only inconvenient for us but this is a major issue for our indigenous brothers. Pray for the government to finally listen and act!

Psa 35:10 Every bone in my body will shout: "No one is like the LORD!" You protect the helpless from those in power; you save the poor and needy from those who hurt them.

What's this Strike Really About

We are still waiting for the word from Yurimaguas to tell us that the strike is over, however, this may still take awhile. We are in contact with Pancho and the family on a at least daily basis and sometimes twice a day in the hopes of finding out that we can go home. We are still waiting and praying here in Tarapoto. I have found a couple of articles that are very interesting and would like to share them with you here to help you better understand the plight of the Indians and why this strike is so monumentally important to their future. Please continue to uphold them in prayer.

“These actions are a reply to being treated as if we did not exist.”

Carlos Ramirez Sanchez writes in his post David against Goliath [es]:

The drop that made the glass overflow was the enactment of the law 1090, which modifies important aspects of the Forestry Law. Thus, they are excluded from any decision, with a central government that turned a deaf ear to their demands, giving priority to private investment of the rights of those who have millennial possessions, things have reached a dangerous threshold.

In the blog RIDEI [es] (International Network of Intercultural Studies), Marco Huaco writes about what these protests mean for the protestors themselves:

Since April 09, for the second time a protest of significant magnitude was declared by the Amazonian indigenous communities. It is very likely that we do not perceive the strong meaning and intensity of the protest, nor the strength of their decision because we do not know the enormous effort and sacrifice that brings to the Amazonian indigenous to mobilize to defend their rights, unlike the urban protests in which participants mobilize and then go home, the Amazon mobilization may involve transfer of large human contingents that are transported by rivers and then take part in long hours of hiking to reach population centers from where they show their presence and voice of protest.

It is difficult for them to stay away drastically from their communities, sleep in the streets and plazas, feed themselves from their own resources or with support and solidarity from the townspeople and spend a lot of money - which they do not have - during this endeavor, all of this under a solid organization and collective discipline. All this sacrifice is not in vain. To experience this reality motivates their laughter, mockery and sarcasm when they hear that the Government and its servant journalists say that the protestors have been organized, financed and manipulated by NGOs …

From De La Selva Su Web On [es] writes about a piece of news that appeared on the website of Radio La Voz de la Selva 93.9 fm about a naval ship that attacked the Napo indigenous community

I hope that they respect human rights, then later when they get carried away they say that it wasn't them and that justice is unjust. When it comes time to show force with the weak, then they are good, but when it comes time to defend the border, they always lose, on top of it all, they are caught up in cases of corruption, theft, and bad actions of all kinds. On the other hand, if the indigenous are protesting it is because they are tired of so much indifference and injustice at the hands of the supposed civilized. Hopefully the authorities will reflect on the matter and that the Iquiteños will support the indigenous struggle.

More on Strike

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Rory Carroll, Latin America correspondent guardian.co.uk, Monday 18 May 2009 12.54 BST

.Peru army moves into Amazon after tribes blockade rivers and roads
Ecology and culture at stake say environmentalists, as government plans to exploit rainforest for oil, gas and timber. Peru's army is poised to deploy in the Amazon rainforest to lift blockades across rivers and roads by indigenous people opposed to oil, gas, logging and mining projects.
The government has authorised the military to move into remote provinces where a state of emergency has been declared in the wake of a month-long stand-off between indigenous people and police.

President Alan Garcia said the state had the right and responsibility to develop mineral and hydrocarbon wealth to benefit all Peruvians. "We have to understand that when there are resources like oil, gas and timber, they don't belong only to the people who had the fortune to be born there because that would mean more than half of Peru's territory belongs to a few thousand people."

In the past two years the centre-right government has signed deals with multinationals to open swaths of rainforest, including a £1.3bn agreement last month with the Anglo-French oil company Perenco.

Indigenous groups, backed by environmentalists and Catholic bishops, have protested that the developments will devastate the area's ecology and their culture. About 65 tribes have mobilised 30,000 people to disrupt roads, waterways and pipelines, leading to skirmishes with police. Up to 41 vessels serving energy companies are stuck along jungle rivers, paralysed by the protests, one private sector source told Reuters.

One of the most tense areas is along the Napo river in northern Peru, said Survival International, a London-based rights advocacy group. "After local indigenous people blockaded the river with a nylon cable, a naval gunboat and three boats belonging to Perenco broke through the blockade, sinking some of the protesters' canoes in the process."

The National Organisation of the Amazon Indigenous people of Peru said last week's declaration of a state of emergency, which suspended some constitutional rights in four jungle provinces, amounted to a declaration of war by the government.

The group responded by calling for an "insurgency" but retracted the term on Saturday after being threatened with 10 years in jail for sedition. Protests will continue but within the rule of law, it said. The Peruvian rainforest is the largest swath of Amazon outside Brazil. According to one study oil, gas and timber deals would cover an estimated 70% of the forest.

The government says such developments are needed to boost economic growth and state revenues in one of South America's poorest countries. The projects, which could turn Peru into a net oil exporter, are in line with a free trade deal with the United States.

Alberto Pizango, an indigenous leader, said the tribes – who claim the forest as ancestral land – were not seeking a blanket ban on projects. "What we want is development from our perspective."

Each side has blamed the other for breakdown in negotiations

Peru Declares State of Emergency, Deploys Special Forces to Break Up Indigenous Protests

Peru Declares State of Emergency, Deploys Special Forces to Break Up Indigenous Protests

LIMA, Peru, May 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In Peru, indigenous protests against recent government decrees affecting their land and resource rights continue to spread throughout the country. Amazon Watch has received several alarming reports of violent crackdowns against peaceful demonstrators by Special Forces after PresidentAlan Garcia declared a state of emergency in the Cusco, Ucayali, Loreto and Amazonas regions over the weekend.

For the past month, indigenous peoples have blockaded roads and rivers throughout the Amazon to protest new decrees which make it easier to transfer indigenous peoples' land and resource rights to oil, mining, logging and agricultural companies to the detriment of local inhabitants. The decrees have also set the stage for the privatization of water resources.

In the town of Bagua in the Amazonas region near the border with Ecuador, there have been reports that on Sunday armed forces cracked down on peaceful Awajun and Huambis demonstrators on the Corral Quemado Bridge resulting in several serious injuries. Two people are reported missing.

Elsewhere, several thousand Shawi and Cocama Cocamillas have blockaded the road between Yurimaguas and Tarapoto, a major transport route.

Yesterday in Lima, Peru's Prime Minister, Yehude Simon met with leaders of AIDESEP, Peru's leading indigenous rights organization.

Last Friday 42 indigenous leaders staged a hunger strike in the Peruvian Congress to demand that the full legislature debate the repeal of the decrees and eight Peruvian Catholic bishops issued a statement saying the decrees were a "twisted concept of development" that "threaten to increase regional poverty" in the Amazon.

The Peruvian government has auctioned off huge swaths of indigenous lands to mining and energy concessions. During the month-long protest, the Garcia administration has signed contracts for another 15 oil concessions - the majority of them in the Amazon.

"The government has not defended us against the oil, mining and logging companies that continue to pollute our communities after they illegally entered our lands," said Alberto Pizango, the president of AIDESEP. "The government is not abiding by international treaties signed by Peru as well as our own Constitution."

"We urge the Garcia administration to refrain from using force and instead enter into meaningful talks with indigenous peoples to resolve their legitimate concerns," said Atossa Soltani, Executive Director of Amazon Watch.

SOURCE Amazon Watch

Good News!

Great news actually. The strike in Tarapoto is over so we didn't have to walk from the airport to the hotel. Praise God for that!

The not so good news is that Yurimaguas declared an indefinite strike. Ya know the who knows when it will end kind. The roads on either side of Tarapoto are blocked by the natives. Nothing is getting in or out by road. They are protesting the "law of the jungle" and within their rights, but in my opinion (which doesn't count for much) they should take it to Lima where the powers that be are. It is causing chaos here. Food is scarce and prices have doubled and tripled (price gougers here, too).

The good news is that we are in a comfortable hotel with hot water showers, free continental breakfast (bread and coffee), and air conditioning. What more do we need, right?

Please pray for this to be over quickly. There is still alot of planning to be done for the team coming in just 3 weeks. We haven't even been able to get to the house to pack yet. God is in control thankfully and He is not taken by surprise by any of this.

Thank you for all your prayers for the teams coming this summer.

Striking Again

Yes, that is right. There are strikes everywhere. In Tarapoto it's a motocar strike which means nobody can go anywhere. If a car is caught riding around they just slash the tires. Many are stranded at the airport. The planes are running, but walking is the only way to and/or from the airport.

In Yurimaguas there is an indefinite strike again. We aren't sure when it will end, but we'd sure like to get back to the house. We've been in Lima taking care of all the logistical things for the teams and legal matters for nets, talking with Wycliffe etc. We leave Lima in the morning to go to Tarapoto and hopefully can get home. Please pray for solutions to all of these strikes and that there won't be any during the times the teams will be here.

On top of this, believe it or not, it is still raining in Yurimaguas. At least the river will be good for travel. Praise the Lord.

Access Once Again

Yes, we are in Peru. No, we didn't drop off the face of the earth. We have not had internet access until Friday. But all is back to normal (whatever normal is, huh?). The weather in Peru is at a transition point and very hard to forecast each day.

We are busy getting things ready for teams coming down this summer. Please pray for them all:

Long's Small Group (29) June 7th-June 21st

NY Group (Irma's Apt) June 19th-June 27th

Puerto Rico (Candoshi) July 3rd- ?

SC Group (Irma's Apt) July 10th - ?

College Group (10) July 12-July 25th.

As you can see there are many activities going on in our area. The 2 groups working on Irma's apartment need prayer for safety in building and for acquiring necessary supplies to complete the job in a timely manner. The Puerto Rico group will be making their annual trip to the Candoshi and need prayer for travel safety on the rivers. The other groups need travel prayers as well.

Right now the jungle areas are in a 60 day state of emergency. Please pray that this will not affect the trips and that this won't turn into anything violent. It is better than a total shut down of the area but this also means probable curfews which could affect us.

Looking forward to seeing all those traveling our way.