Peru land laws opposed by ethnic families suspended

Peru has put on hold a controversial law that eased restrictions on logging in the Amazon, after it sparked clashes between police and families who live there, killing dozens of people. On Friday at least 54 people, including some police, died after violence between security forces and indigenous protesters. The parliament agreed to suspend Decree 1090 dubbed the "Law of the Jungle" that covers forestry in Peru's northeastern Amazon rain forest. A law to regulate investment in the Amazon was also suspended.

About half a million Indians of 65 ethnic groups who live in the Peruvian jungle fiercely oppose the laws they say mean they will lose control of natural resources. Indigenous people have been holding protests since April across the region. But the protests peaked Friday and Saturday when 400 police officers moved in to clear protesters blocking a highway near the northern city of Bagua. According to the government, 25 police officers and nine Indian protesters died in the clashes. But protest leaders and media reports suggest the death toll is much higher. The laws were suspended indefinitely "to negotiate without pressure," said Aurelio Pastor, a legislator with President Alan Garcia's APRA party, according to Agence France Presse. Both measures ease restrictions on mining, oil drilling, logging and farming in the Peruvian Amazon.

Putting the law on hold is seen as a compromise allowing the government to resume talks with protestors who have been blocking key regional highways. The decision also comes the day before a strike called by Peru’s powerful union, the General Confederation of Workers of Peru (CGTP). Mario Huaman, CGTP leader, said there would be a protest ending at the presidential palace in Lima to reject "the arrogant, intolerant, overbearing and discriminatory attitude of the government towards the Amazon communities." Other marches, including those held by indigenous protesters in Amazon cities and towns, are also planned in Peru's main cities.

Meanwhile 3,000 Indians are blocking a major Amazon highway linking the cities of Tarapoto and Yurimaguas, (435 miles) north of Lima. Indigenous leader leader, Kariajano Sandi, told the news service that he and his men would not lift the roadblock until the government definitively overturns the laws. "We do not believe the government, they lie too much," said Sandi, surrounded by a group of his followers.The clashes were the bloodiest since the government's war in the 1980s and 1990s against the Shining Path, a violent Maoist insurgency, and the leftist Tupac Amaru guerrillas.

By Hayley Jarvis for SOS Children