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Peru: Indigenous Protests Successfully Reverse President Alan Garcia's Decrees Opening Amazon To Oil Exploitation, Notisur Writers

NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America

A growing number of protests against the administration of Per's President Alan Garcia led to a declaration of a state of emergency in several departments in August after indigenous groups seized petroleum and natural-gas facilities. The indigenous groups were fighting to overturn presidential decrees that would have allowed tribes to sell their lands to private interests, a measure required under the terms of the free-trade agreement (FTA) that Peru and the US ratified. The Congress ultimately overturned Garcia's decrees by an overwhelming majority, leading to the end of the indigenous protests. Nonetheless, broad popular discontent with Garcia--as demonstrated by multiple …