LIMA, (Reuters) – Tribes and opposition leaders sharply criticized Peruvian President Alan Garcia yesterday for rejecting a law that would have given Indians more power to halt mining, oil and road projects on their native lands.
Congress had passed the law to try to calm tensions that have lingered since more than 30 people died last year in a clash between police and Amazon tribes. It was the worst violence of Garcia’s term.
Indigenous groups say Garcia’s drive to lure foreign investment to the rain forest will undermine their traditional way of life and speed up logging in the Amazon basin.
“It’s clear that Garcia doesn’t understand or respect the rights of native communities,” said Edgard Reymundo, a Congressman from the Bloque Popular political group.
By approving the bill, Congress was attempting to codify in local legislation parts of the U.N. convention on indigenous peoples, which Peru signed in 1994. It says that tribes must be consulted when governments plan projects on their lands.
But Garcia, who sent the law back to Congress just a few days before it is to go into a two-month recess tomorrow, said the law went too far.
“The law approved by Congress goes beyond the U.N. convention because it doesn’t just include tribal communities in the Amazon but also peasant communities,” Garcia told reporters. “So if you want to build a road or gas pipeline and the locals say ‘no,’ then there is no road or electricity.”
The law might tie the hands of future administrations and give some Peruvians more rights than others, he said. “Peru is for all Peruvians … and for there to be democracy we can’t place limits on future legislatures or governments.”
The Andean country has been one of the world’s fastest-growing economies for much of the past decade, riding a wave of demand for its mineral exports, especially from China.