On June 5th, 2010, under a scorching hot sun, hundreds of mourners gathered at a remote section of highway called 'La Curva del Diablo' (The Devil's Curve), located near Bagua, in northern Peru. People came from all over the country to commemorate the deaths of over 30 people who died one year ago at this fateful site. Simultaneous memorials were also held in cities all over Peru.

It was a slightly chaotic scene. Over loudspeakers, people shouted slogans such as 'La selva no se vende, se defiende' (the jungle is not for sale, we must defend it). Small children ran up and down the cactus-covered hill, selling multicolored popsicles and fluorescent soft drinks to the sweating crowd. People crouched in prayer in front of a large white cross erected in honor of the dead. Tense whispers spread among the mourners, in anticipation of the arrival of Alberto Pizango, the famed Awajun indigenous leader who is being portrayed in the Peruvian media as a criminal, guilty of perpetrating violence against the state. Students waved posters of Pizango's passionate face, his gold teeth gleaming against a blood-red background.

What happened one year ago at Bagua?
The events of June 5th, 2009 are being called 'Peru's Tiennamen Square' and are linked to the current global struggle for the control of the diminishing oil reserves on Earth. The exact details concerning the killings that took place near Bagua are still nebulous and many conflicting reports and opinions could be heard at the memorial event. People cited different figures concerning the number of people who were killed in the violence. While the official body count is currently at 34 (a tally that includes 25 local police officers and 9 indigenous people), many local Bagua citizens speculate that up to 100 Awajun and Wampis activists died at the massacre and that their bodies have been hidden from the public eye by the national police.

The issues surrounding the Bagua massacre are complex and are related to the protection of indigenous land rights and the exploitation of native territories by the oil industry. In June of 2009, dozens of Awajun and Wampis indigenous people traveled from the Amazonion jungle to camp out at the La Curva del Diablo, a strategic location for trucks entering from the Pacific coast into the Amazon region. They held their ground for two weeks, in protest of controversial government laws that allow national and multinational corporations to exploit natural resources in indigenous territories.

As it stands, 72% of the Peruvian Amazon has been conceded to multinational corporations by the Peruvian government for fossil fuel exploration and extraction. In a nutshell, the Awajun and Wampis activists wanted the Peruvian government to recognize and respect native lands as well as adequately consult indigenous people before extractive activities begin.

According to the Peruvian media, tensions rose between the indigenous protesters and the local Bagua police, which led to a violent stand-off that left 34 people dead and a hundred people wounded. However, at the memorial in 2010, many survivors of the event reported to us that protesters and local police did not actually clash, but that both sides were in fact attacked by the Peruvian national police.

Eyewitnesses related that police helicopters were sent in from national headquarters to violently end the protest. They claimed that the national police exterminated all those on the ground, killing protesters with gunfire from above, and in the process also killing many local Bagua police officers. To cover up the massacre, local people in Bagua say that the national police imposed a 3 pm curfew for all citizens, cordoned off the area for many days and disposed of all the bodies by burning them.

While an official investigation and subsequent released statements did not reveal any more deaths, local people remain adamant that many more people died than was admitted, but the exact numbers are unknown. However, despite the differences in factual details, the extreme nature of the eyewitness stories is a testament to their painful grief. All the people we spoke to were outraged by the events and spoke of a strong desire for justice in the face of oppression.

For more background on the 2009 events, please see:
http://www.smh.com.au/business/indigenous-genocide-in-battle-for-oilfiel...

The Bagua Memorial and its Ideological Landscape

Many different leaders spoke to the large crowd gathered at La Curva del Diablo. Their discourses varied and their words were at times both unsettling and uplifting to the listeners. Some hardcore anti-extraction activists referred to the multinationals in Peru as evil propagators of capitalist values and rapists of La Pachamama (Mother Earth). They led chants that encouraged the crowd to reject all forms of exploitation of native lands and focused on environmental preservation.

Other indigenous leaders did not condemn the multinationals, but expressed hope that their communities would be able to reap the financial benefits of the economic activities, and thus combat widespread poverty, improve education, promote health and encourage the economic development of the jungle. These speakers emphasized their frustration that foreign investors were getting rich while Peruvians remained in the dust. As one speaker aptly put it, 'Nosotros tenemos la vaca, y ellos toman la leche' (we've got the cow, but they drink the milk).

While all speakers agreed that violence, corruption and oppression in Peru must end, they did not agree on proposed strategies to end the conflict and had fundamentally different perceptions of indigenous self-determination and economic development.

The most intense speech of the day was that of Alberto Pizango, the Awajun indigenous leader who had recently returned from exile in Nicaragua. He gave a measured yet captivating speech that provided a detailed account of the history of all economic activity the Amazon. He spoke of the sacrifice made by his fallen brothers, the struggles of his people for land recognition and implored the government to protect indigenous rights and the precious ecosystem of the jungle. For his own protection, after he spoke, he was escorted away by bodyguards and the local police and this caused a brief but mad flurry of fans who were trying to follow him and speak to him.

The memorial was also marked by two Awajun elders who spoke in their native language about the killings. They sang several traditional indigenous songs to a hushed crowd and their voices filled the valley with the power of their ancestral past. The memorial ended peacefully and the crowd dissipated as people headed back to the towns of Bagua Chica and Bagua Grande in packed moto-taxis. The upcoming months will reveal more about this situation as pressure is placed on the Peruvian government to protect indigenous rights.

(The fieldwork to write this article was carried out by Anna Luisa Daigneault and Bronwen Moen, both from Montreal, Canada).

more photos here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=220718&id=526216928&l=7cf5e4fb2f