CONGRESS SUSPENDS DECREES TO DEFUSE PROTESTS

C O N F I D E N T I A L LIMA 000822

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/10/2019
TAGS: PGOV PREL SOCI ELAB ETRD ECON PE
SUBJECT: CONGRESS SUSPENDS DECREES TO DEFUSE PROTESTS

REF: LIMA 817 (AND PREVIOUS)

Classified By: Pol/C Alexis Ludwig for reasons 1.4(c) and (d).


1. (C) Summary: In an effort to reduce tensions and defuse
protests, the Congressional plenary on June 10 voted to
suspend decrees 1064 and 1090 for 90 days. Security forces
are preparing for planned June 11 nation-wide protests,
including one in downtown Lima. The Prime Minister has met
with Church representatives and the Human Rights Ombudsman to
seek a way out of the crisis. According to June 10 news
reports, Aidesep leader Alberto Pizango was refused asylum by
several countries before receiving it from Nicaragua. The
international information battle has begun in earnest, with
certain media outlets providing a highly biased version of
government repression. End Summary.

Congress "Suspends" Decrees
--------------

2. (C) In an effort to reduce persistent tensions following
the June 5 violence in Bagua and to defuse the energies
behind the planned June 11 nationwide protest (refs),the
Congressional plenary met June 10 to debate the "suspension"
of Decrees 1064 and 1090, Peru's Forest and Wildlife law.
After a vigorous debate, the plenary voted 57-47 in favor of
the measure. The ruling APRA-party gained early support from
the National Unity (UN) alliance and the Fujimorista bloc to
introduce this measure, which calls for setting the Decrees
aside for 90 days in order to give the government the time it
needs to inform the public, and indigenous communities, about
their real (and positive) ramifications.


3. (C) One Congressman who supported suspension told us the
government would be able to sell the benefits of a good law
to a skeptical population and then reinstate it, with minor
modifications, later. Peruvian Nationalist Party
representatives called for derogating the law once and for
all, arguing that suspension was a cloudy idea that amounted
to postponing the debate once again. Some Nationalist Party
insiders separately told us that, while "suspending" the law
was tantamount to derogating it, party representatives in
Congress would vote against the measure to save face. They
further acknowledged that decree 1090 was a good law over
all, but could be improved with minor adjustments.

June 11 Strike
--------------

4. (C) Security forces are preparing for June 11 nation-wide
strikes, scheduled to take place in Lima, Lambayeque,
Huanuco, Cajamarca, Madre de Dios, Junin, Ayacucho and
elsewhere. The PNP estimates that some 3,000 people are
likely to participate in downtown Lima, marching from one
large plaza adjacent to Congress toward the Central Plaza in
front of the Government Palace. We understand police plan to
cordon off and block entry into the city's central plaza.
According to some reports, infiltrators and "agents
provocateurs," particularly in the Lima protests, are likely
to seek to provoke further violent conflicts with the police.
In addition to general "support for the demands of the
indigenous tribes of Peru," protestors are calling for the
government to:

-- revoke the legislative decrees that they say triggered the
recent violence (decree 1060 is linked to the FTA;

-- annul the arrest warrant of Alberto Pizango, who is in the
Embassy of Nicaragua;

-- and revoke the state of emergency and curfew in Amazonas

A large number of social, political and indigenous
organizations have announced their participation in the
protest, including Aidesep, the General Confederation of
Peruvian Workers (CGTP) and other labor unions, Patria Roja,
the Peruvian Communist and Socialist Parties and other groups

Aidesep Leader's Asylum
--------------

5. (C) The local media reported that the Government of
Nicaragua has confirmed its decision to grant political
asylum to Alberto Pizango, President of the Inter-ethnic
Association for the Development of the Peruvian Jungle
(Aidesep) on humanitarian grounds and that the GON has
requested safe-conduct to allow Pizango's free passage to
Nicaragua. Peruvian Foreign Minister Jose Garcia Belaunde
publicly responded that Peru would respect Nicaragua's
decision. According to one report, the FM asserted that
three countries -- the France, Bolivia, and the U.S. -- had
denied Pizango asylum.

HR Ombudsman, Church's roles
--------------

6. (SBU) As the GOP searches for honest brokers in the
crisis, PM Simon and other government officials have met with
representatives of the HR Ombudsman's office and the Catholic
Church, among others. Ombudswoman Beatriz Merino agreed to
participate in negotiations between the executive and
representatives of native communities try and reinitate
dialog following the violent clashes reported in Bagua last
week. Merino said she would ensure broad representation of
indigenous communities to enable these groups to fully
participate in negotiations. (With its leader absent from
the scene, Aidesep is in organizational disarray and lacks
interlocutors with the authority to represent community
interests.) Simon also called on Merino to ensure Ombudsman
representatives remain in Yurimaguas where the situation
remains tense, with protestors maintaining their blockade of
a section of the Yurimaguas - Tarapoto Highway.

Emerging Facts Amid Confusion
--------------

7. (C) The underlying facts surrounding the June 5 violence
remain cloudy. Nonetheless, the emerging official version
indicates that Peruvian National Police seeking to clear
long-standing road blocks outside of Bagua were ambushed by
protestors and, in some cases, stripped of their firearms and
killed. Police then returned fire in self-defense.
Subsequently, protestors surrounding a Petro-Peru pumping
station entered the grounds and took 38 police personnel
hostage. Nine of these 38 were later killed. The final (if
not definitive) toll of the violence was 24 dead policemen
and nine dead civilians, and over 150 injured. After sending
a team to investigate, the Human Rights Ombudswoman rejected
statements by a local priest that the bodies of a dozen
indigenous people killed during Friday's clashes, had been
buried in a mass grave, located in the area of El Reposo,
between Bagua and Bagua Grande. Some observers have
underscored the still high number of persons who remain
missing.

Comment: Information and Disinformation
--------------

8. (C) The fact that far more police than protestors appear
to have been killed during the violence, however, has not
stopped various news media outlets, national and
international, from disseminating a radically different
interpretation of events on the ground, sometimes even
reversing the number of dead allegedly suffered by each side.
In this increasingly intensive information and
misinformation campaign, it would appear that assuming the
role of innocent victim represents the path to victory. In
pursuit of this end, inconvenient facts are either brushed
aside or actively altered. Government officials, including
the Prime Minister, have acknowledged that their inability to
accurately transmit the content of the decrees, and their
clumsy response to the unexpected violence once it exploded,
exacerbated a highly volatile situation. Yet, to buy into a
highly biased version of events pitting innocent indigenous
protestors against a repressive state machinery is to lose
sight of the larger political struggle. In this struggle,
mobilized radical elements with a plan are seeking to use a
convenient pretext to undermine the credibility of a still
consolidating democracy and to frame a stumbling, imperfect
government with full responsibility for the worst crisis it
has faced in its near three years.
MCKINLEY