Peru: A Year and a Half after the Bagua Massacre: the Strategy of “the Leopard”

Written on 17 January 2011. Posted in Peru

Bagua shocked the nation with its tragic and needless death toll that resulted from the disproportionate and poor handling of a military operation, for which no one has assumed responsibility, and because the government of Alan García attempted to surreptitiously ignore the constitutional rights of the peoples indigenous to the Amazon region in favor of big private interests.

After the events, the outrage of the citizens was proportional to the magnitude of the shock. The reaction of various bodies in charge of overseeing compliance with international human rights treaties, of which Peru is a signatory, was also immediate, and the country was subject to very serious criticism. It was hoped that the government would mend its ways. That seemed to be the case when four roundtables were created with the objective of implementing the proposals that arose therefrom. Nevertheless, a year and a half later, it has become evident that "if we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change” the strategy of the leopard.