LIMA (AFP) — Peru will seek the repeal of unpopular decrees that would have opened up the Amazon rainforest for mining and other development, Prime Minister Yehude Simon said after the legislation sparked deadly clashes.
In a dramatic government climbdown, a bill is to be submitted to parliament Tuesdaylifting the temporary suspension of laws barring tree harvesting in the rainforest, Simon said during a visit in the Amazon basin on the eastern slope of the Andes with "Apus," traditional Amazon Indian chiefs who represent several tribal groups.
A multi-party commission also will examine four other contested decrees to determine whether they can be modified or repealed, the premier said according to the official news agency Andina.
The state of emergency will be lifted in the city of Bagua, some 1,000 kilometers north of Lima, where calm finally has returned 10 days of bloody clashes between police officers and natives that left 34 dead, according to an official toll, he added.
But representatives from Peru's minority Amazon Indian population, which numbers some 400,000 people, appeared underwhelmed by the government's overtures.
One key consortium of Indian groups dismissed the concessions as "late," and only offered "under pressure from the Peruvian people and the international community," the AIDESEP organization said as it called for Simon's resignation.
Indigenous activists so far are keeping in place road and river blockades that have been erected throughout the country.
And far from being placated, they have planned a massive anti-government march for June 24, which they are calling "a day of national action."