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VIEW: ‘Peru’s contentious decrees should be scrapped’, says the Globe and Mail

The Globe and Mail editorial board writes this morning, “Peruvian President Alan Garcia cannot be permitted to get away with his glib dismissal of Indian protesters in Peru’s Amazon region as ‘terrorists.’ The way Mr. Garcia sees it, the Indians are impediments to economic development and their protests against his unilateral plans to sell off traditional Indian lands for oil, mining and logging place them alongside al-Qaeda in the ranks of international evil.”

“A vote by Peru’s Congress to suspend two contentious decrees on the use of the land and resources in the Amazonian jungle is helpful, but does not go far enough. These laws should be scrapped, and Mr. Garcia needs to start again. The President imposed them in order to ease the implementation of a free-trade agreement with the United States.”

While the Globe and Mail editorial board doesn’t make the link, the Canada-Peru Free Trade Agreement is currently before the Senate of Canada.

Please send Canadian senators a message through our ‘ACTION ALERT: Canada must halt free trade agreement with Peru’ at www.canadians.org/action/2009/11-June-09.html.

The Globe and Mail editorial is at www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/editorials/amazonian-conflict/article1179051/.