Baguazo

The 2009 Peruvian political crisis resulted from the ongoing opposition to oil development in the Peruvian Amazon, with local Native Americans opposing Petroperú and the National Police. At theforefront of the movement to resist the development was AIDESEP, the coalition of indigenous community organizations.

The crisis involved over one year of declared opposition and advocacy, and 65straight days of civil disobedience. In June 2009, the Garcia government suspended civil liberties, declared a state of emergency, and sent in the military to stop the protests. The military interventionresulted in two days of bloody confrontations, in which, according to first reports, at least 22 soldiers (7 by spears), and least 30 indigenous people (including 3 children) were killed.

Thisconflict has been described as Peru's worst political violence in years and is the worst crisis of President Alan García's presidency.Prime Minister Yehude Simon was forced to resign his post in theaftermath, and Congress repealed the laws that led to the protests.

Background

A free trade agreement negotiated between Peru and the United States that came into effect in February 2009 requiredcertain changes in law allowing access to the Amazon. The Congress of Peru granted the government authority to implement the required regulatory changes. Indigenous tribes insist that some of the newgovernment regulations brought in by President Alan García in 2008 threaten the safety of their natural resources and would enable foreign companies to exploit them. Protests ensued in August 2008 andCongress repealed two laws and promised to examine and vote on others. When that didn't happen, protests and blockades resumed in April 2009.

Mineral exploitation is nowadays attacked by researchershaving shown a link between the abundance of natural resources (particularly minerals and oil) of a country and its poor growth performance, as well as poor governmental policies and institutions...