Facing the strike made by Amazonian Indigenous Peoples,
Amazonian bishops submitted their pronouncement
As ministers of the catholic communities in the Amazonia we want to address the public opinion to express our position about the strike of the Amazonian Peoples.
1. The Amazon Basin is rich in both traditional long-established cultures and biodiversity. It is the source of life and represents the hope for mankind. This is the reason we consider it as one of God’s finest gifts, since Peru has the 8th wealthy diversity in the world. Within the Amazon Basin there are 31 life-zones or ecosystem from the 114 presented in the world, it also represents 95% of Peru’s forests and a very important source of hydrological and hydroelectric energy. These reasons urges all of us, Peruvians, to take the responsibility to “work and care the ground” (Gen. 2) for our own good and for the coming generations.
2. Therefore, as announcers “of life, we want to stress that, in the interventions over the natural resources, there would not be present any predominant interest coming from groups that irrationally destroy the sources of life, in detriment to entire nations and even mankind” (Aparecida Document 471).
3. From this perspective we witness the scope of the State’s allowance to cut-down large extensions of land and forests for the benefit of both national and transnational companies investing in oiling plantations, sugar cane and other particular goods.
4. It is well known that the rivers are polluted with lead and other sort of heavy metals and toxic materials, caused by irresponsible mining activities (both formal and informal) and oil extraction. Further, we are witnesses of the indiscriminate logging, lacking of any kind of control.
5. We can affirm that indigenous and riparian peoples´ clamor for an integral development is not being attended, as the State fails to recognize how those lands were used and occupied for entire generations. On practice, the Amazonian Peoples´ rights have not being taken into account, opposite to what it is asserted in the State’s Political Constitution and by International Human Rights Instruments and Treaties, such as the ILO´s Covenant 169 and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. ILO´s Report of the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions, published on February 2009, urges the Peruvian government to immediately move further for designing mechanisms for the proper participation of indigenous peoples, and also exhorts it to consult indigenous peoples before taking any measure that may affect them either directly or indirectly.
6. We must express that “the Catholic Church… especially appreciates indigenous people because of their truly respect towards nature and mother nature’s care for us as source for nourishment, as our home and the altar for human sharing” (Aparecida Document 472).
7. Events such as the one we’re currently experiencing in the Amazonia expresses the cruel and inhuman way pretention to seize the possessions of riparian Amazonian communities, as they do not have any legal recourse to defend their claims even in their own country. In this context, these communities are condemned to be uprooted from their lands and to become clerks from the sugar cane, palm oil, mining and hydrocarbon companies.
8. The legal rules that were enacted by the State in 2008 (especially 2 Law acts and 7 Legislative decrees) do not contribute in any way with an integral development for the Amazonian population. Instead, new threats for a larger and deeper poverty arose in the region.
9. We reject violence. That is why we urge the Government and the Congress to show their will for dialogue and for the search of peaceful and fair solutions for the problems facing the Amazonian Peoples, so that an increase in the social conflicts can be avoided.
10. We make a call for the social mass media to provide the people with trustworthy information, and to contribute to the respect of citizens´ right to be well informed of the events in the Peruvian Amazonia.
11. Facing this fragile outlook we make a call to the Constitutional President and the Republic’s Congress to derogate such legal acts and to reformulate new rules that include a proper participation for the Amazonian peoples. In this sense, we also make a call on the Amazonian and riparian communities and their leaders to come together in order to look for our common Welfare. We consider as necessary to create an authentic Dialogue Table that includes every social actor in order to find a peaceful and harmonious resolution for this conflict.
As a conclusion, together with all the Bishops of Latin America, we reaffirm the need to “…look for an alternative, integral and supportive development model, established on ethical behaviors, including the responsibility for an authentic natural and human ecology, based on the justice of Gospel, solidarity and the universal use of goods…” (Aparecida Document 474c).
May 5, 2009
Mons. José Luis Astigarraga, C.P.
Bishop - Vicariate of Yurimaguas
Mons. Santiago García de la Rasilla, S.J.
Bishop - Vicariate of Jaèn
Mons. Gaetano Galbusera, S.D.B.
Bishop – Vicariate of Pucallpa
Mons. Julián García, O.S.A.
Bishop – Vicariate of Iquitos
Mons. Rafael Alfonso Escudero López-Brea
Territorial Prelature of Moyobamba
Mons. Alberto Campos, O.F.M.
Bishop – Vicariate of San José de Amazonas
Mons. Gerardo Zerdin, O.F.M.
Bishop – Vicariate of San Ramón
Mons. Francisco González, O.P.
Bishop – Vicariate of Puerto Maldonado
Mons. Juan Tomás Oliver, O.F.M.
Bishop – Vicariate of Requena
