ABSTRACT
In early June 2009, violent and deadly fights broke out between police and Amazon tribal groups on a jungle highway in northern Peru. It was the violent culmination of a 2-month-long campaign of peaceful rallies and blockades across Peru’s Amazon region by indigenous groups. They protested against two decrees, passed in 2007 and 2008 as part of a free-trade agreement, that would allow exploitation of Peruvian rainforest, such as oil and gas concessions. As much of this area is on indigenous land, tribal groups argued the decrees would open up mineral and mining rights in a way that would threaten their ancestral lands and way of life.
