CLASH LEAVES NINE POLICE, ELEVEN PROTESTORS DEAD

C O N F I D E N T I A L LIMA 000795 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/02/2018 TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR PTER PE SUBJECT: CLASH LEAVES NINE POLICE, ELEVEN PROTESTORS DEAD REF: LIMA 777 Classified By: Amb. P Michael McKinley for reasons 1.4b and d. ¶1. (C) Summary: After the government decided to act to facilitate the flow of food and fuel to several communities and cities strangled by prolonged protests (ref),as many as nine police and eleven indigenous protestors were killed today in a violent clash that occurred as security forces attempted to remove a roadblock on a highway outside the town of Bagua in the remote northern Amazonas region. The highway is the key access road between the coast of northern Peru and the interior. According to our police contacts, the clash occurred after protestors shot at officers in a helicopter hovering overhead. In subsequent action, police dispersed protestors and cleared the roads, and protestors attacked police stations, city offices, and communal buildings. Separately, the police cleared the access to the town of Tarapoto in San Martin department (population 120,000) which was on the verge of running out of fuel. ¶2. (C) The situation remains tense. Government spokespersons including the President have been remarkably direct in defending their actions, and as the scope of the violence is digested, there are suggestions other parties are rallying around. The exception is the Nationalist Party led by Ollanta Humala, whose congresspersons joined indigenous group AIDESEP leader Alberto Pizango in press appearances. Humala is denying he stoked the protests or violence but is on the defensive. President Garcia, meanwhile, responded to the violence by placing responsibility on the protest leaders, particularly Pizango. The latter charged the government with genocide, denying his followers had anything to do with the deaths of the police, and stating all protestors were unarmed. ¶3. (C) Prime Minister Yehude Simon was given the space by Garcia to handle the building crisis with a mix of public appeals, offers of dialogue, and political compromises. Others in the cabinet were critical of the decision to let Pizango have as much of a free hand as he did. The debate inside the government over how to handle the increasingly confrontational protests was finally resolved in favor of action. The consequences, however, are worse than anyone anticipated. End Summary. ¶4. (C) As many as nine police and eleven indigenous protestors reportedly were killed today in a violent clash that occurred as security forces attempted to remove a roadblock on a highway outside the town of Bagua in the remote northern Amazonas region. (The precise number of dead and injured is fluid, and subject to confirmation.) The roadblock -- part of ongoing indigenous-led protests against a series of decrees governing land use (ref A) -- had attracted several thousand protestors, according to press reports, who in previous days had been bolstered by the arrival of groups of former army conscripts. Reluctant to resort to force and still committed to dialogue after nearly two months of illegal roadblocks, the government decided to act June 5 to facilitate the flow of food and fuel to a number of communities strangled by the protests. About 600 police arrived on the scene to dislodge the protest. According to police contacts in the area, the clash occurred when police sent a helicopter to support a group of some 60 police that had been surrounded by a larger number of protestors. As the helicopter and police launched tear gas, some of the protestors fired on the helicopter. Police responded by firing on the crowd, causing the clash that killed the police and protestors. According to press reports, dozens of injured people have overwhelmed the hospital in Bagua. ¶5. (C) The roads in Bagua have since been cleared and the protests dispersed, according to police contacts and press reports, but the situation remains tense. Reports of violent clashes in Bagua have led protest leaders in other key flashpoints in Tarapoto (capital of San Martin region) and Yurimaguas (in the western part of Loreto region) to threaten radicalizing their own actions. So far we have no reports of clashes or deaths in either location. Social movements in other parts of the country, including Cusco and Puno, have also expressed sympathy for and solidarity with the ongoing protests. ¶6. (C) President Garcia responded by placing responsibility for the violence squarely on the protest leaders, particularly Alberto Pizango from the indigenous group Aidesep. He criticized protest leaders as "pseudo indigenous" and "pseudo leaders" who are using the indigenous as "cannon fodder" and "instigating humble people to take illegal and violent actions." Other government and APRA party leaders likened protestors' violent actions to terrorists breaking the law and seeking to provoke the deaths of innocent people. Contacts at the Prime Minister's office have told us the government has actively pursued dialogue, and continues to do so, but would reluctantly reestablish control and clear the roadblocks if it became necessary. Prime Minister Yehude Simon told the Ambassador that the government is seriously considering taking legal action against Pizango, for inciting violence and calling for insurrection against the government, in the coming days. In separate conversations with the ambassador in recent days, other government ministers have privately criticized Simon's go-slow approach to the protests as they built, suggesting there could be political fallout from today's clashes. ¶7. (C) Pizango, meanwhile, held a press conference June 5 charging the government with genocide. He refused to accept any blame for the violence, and emphasized that road-blocking protestors were innocently exercising their rights. A spokesman for the opposition Peruvian Nationalist Party (PNP) told the press that the governing APRA party is to blame for the violence, and that the PNP is considering taking legal action against unspecified officials. ¶8. (C) Comment: At the root of this crisis are social movement leaders seeking to make political hay by manipulating underlying grievances -- mostly entrenched poverty and encroachment on traditional lifestyles by the modern world -- to attack laws actually meant to promote economic development while maintaining indigenous peoples' constitutional rights. The GOP has sought for several weeks to negotiate indigenous concerns over the decrees but has been met with unwillingness to compromise and the systematic thwarting of the negotiations themselves. Now, it has reluctantly chosen to enforce the rule of law by removing roadblocks that were progressively strangling the economic life of several communities. The broader question is whether sympathy for the protestors among other social movements will begin to meld into a broader anti-government protest effort - or whether the violent outcome of the protests will convince most Peruvians of the importance of limiting conflict. End Comment. MCKINLEY