Peru zet inheems land in de etalage
14 - 12 - 2007
Auteur: IPS Bron: IPS
De Peruaanse president Alan García heeft een wetsontwerp klaar dat het buitenlandse bedrijven makkelijker maakt gronden aan te kopen die toebehoren aan de indianengemeenschappen in het land. Sociale conflicten lijken onvermijdelijk, maar volgens de president is het de enige manier om munt te slaan uit uitgestrekte gebieden die nu vaak braak blijven liggen.
In Peru leven bijna 13 miljoen indianen op een totale bevolking van 28 miljoen. In sommige streken behoort 80 procent van alle grond collectief toe aan indianengemeenschappen.
Tot 1990 konden inheemse gronden helemaal niet verhandeld worden. Volgens de huidige wetgeving moet tweederde van een plaatselijke inheemse gemeenschap instemmen met de verkoop of het verpachten van gemene gronden. Het nieuwe wetsontwerp vermindert dat aandeel tot 50 procent plus één stem.
Gebrek aan opleiding en middelenVolgens president García hebben kleine boeren niet de opleiding en niet de nodige middelen om het maximum uit hun gronden te halen. Buitenlandse investeerders kunnen voor een grotere toegevoegde waarde zorgen, door grotere landbouwbedrijven op te richten of bodemrijkdommen boven te halen.
Tegenstanders van zijn initiatief verwijt de Peruaanse president immobilisme. "Als ik het niet kan, mag niemand het doen", redeneren veel Peruanen volgens hem. "Veel land wordt niet gebruikt, kan niet verkocht worden, trekt geen investeringen aan en schept geen banen. En dat is allemaal het gevolg van luiheid, een gebrek aan initiatief en voorbijgestreefde manieren van denken", schreef de president in een artikel dat gepubliceerd werd in El Comercio, een krant die verschijnt in de hoofdstad Lima.Het wetsontwerp past in de strategie van de Peruaanse regering om tegen 2011 voor 7 miljard euro investeringen aan te trekken in de mijnbouwsector.
Kapitalistisch model
"García probeert het kapitalistische model te versterken door de regels voor investeerders verder te versoepelen", oordeelt José de Echave, een econoom van de Peruaanse ontwikkelingsorganisatie CooperAcción. "Dit zal op het platteland zeker tot verzet en conflicten leiden", voorspelt Sinesio López, professor sociologie aan de Katholieke Universiteit van Peru.
Volgens López komen niet alleen de collectieve rechten van inheemse gemeenschappen in het gedrang, maar ook hun culturele wortels en de organisatie van hun samenleving.
De conflicten over inheemse gronden zijn niet nieuw in Peru. Indianen in het noordelijke regio Piura verzetten zich tegen de activiteiten van Minera Majaz, een mijnbouwonderneming die in handen is van het Chinese Xiamen Zijin Tongguan. Volgens plaatselijke boeren begon de mijnbouwmaatschappij in 2003 op hun gronden te zoeken naar koper en molybdeen zonder de toestemming van twee derde van de inheemse gemeenschap. Vorige maand begon een gerechtelijk onderzoek over de zaak.
Jaime Cáceres, de voorzitter van de Peruaanse Federatie van Privéondernemingen, is dan weer vol lof over het initiatief van de president. Volgens hem is het de juiste manier om de productiviteit in het land aan te zwengelen.
Veel redenen tot klagen hebben de Peruaanse ondernemers niet over deze regering. Volgens de ngo CooperAcción steeg in de Peruaanse Andes de oppervlakte van gebieden waarvoor mijnbouwmaatschappijen concessies kregen van zeven miljoen hectare in 2002 tot 13,2 miljoen hectare dit jaar.
maandag 17 december 2007
zondag 16 december 2007
in nederlandsch nieuwsch!
Amerikaanse indianen tegen poepsneeuw op heilige berg
Geplaatst door Theo Borgermans opdi 11 dec '07 om 10:45u (Bron: GVA)
NEW YORK (RKnieuws.net) - Een rechtbank in Californië behandelt volgende week de zaak van 13 indianengroepen tegen de Amerikaanse regering over de uitbouw van een skistation op de San Francisco Peaks. Die berg in het noorden van Arizona wordt door de indianen als heilig beschouwd. De klagers storen zich vooral aan het voornemen om sneeuwkanonnen in te zetten die gerecycleerd rioolwater gebruiken.
"Ze ontheiligen onze gewijde gebieden”, zegt Klee Benally van de Save the Peaks Coalition. “Waarom kunnen wij er als de eerste bewoners van dit land nog altijd niet op rekenen dat onze religieuze rechten beschermd worden?”
De coalitie van 13 indianengroepen en verscheidene milieuorganisaties diende al in 2005 klacht in tegen de uitbouw van het skistation, dat in de jaren 30 heel bescheiden begon maar intussen een echte trekpleister is geworden. De klagers verloren de zaak, maar in maart dit jaar vernietigde een hogere rechtbank in de naburige deelstaat Californië die uitspraak. De rechters in Californië oordeelden dat de Forest Service, de Amerikaanse overheidsdienst die het natuurgebied beheert, zijn eigen voorschriften had overtreden. De effecten van het gebruik van gerecycleerd rioolwater bij de aanmaak van kunstsneeuw waren niet terdege onderzocht. Omdat de omgeving van de San Francisco Peaks kurkdroog is, willen de projectontwikkelaars het water voor de sneeuwkanonnen aanvoeren uit Flagstaff, de dichtstbijgelegen grote stad. Gezuiverd rioolwater is de goedkoopste oplossing. De tegenstanders vrezen dat er ziektekiemen terecht zullen komen in de sneeuw. Bij dooi zou ook het kristalheldere bergwater daardoor besmet kunnen worden. De rechters in Californië voerden ook aan dat de verdere uitbouw van het skistation het moeilijker maakt Indiaanse religieuze tradities in ere te houden. Apaches, Hopi’s, Navajo’s en tien andere indianengroepen die een band hebben met het gebied, verzamelen onder meer kruiden op de bergflanken. Maar de Forest Service en de projectontwikkelaars gingen in beroep tegen de opschorting van de uitbreidingswerken. Volgende week begint een rechtbank in het Californische Pasadena de pleidooien van de advocaten van de twee partijen te beluisteren.
“Het kan toch niet moeilijk zijn om de overheid ervan te weerhouden rioolwater met resten van uitwerpselen, geneesmiddelen en andere troep te gebruiken voor dergelijke toepassingen”, vindt Rudy Preston, een bestuurslid van het Flagstaff Activist Network en een van de oorspronkelijke klagers. “Je speelt niet met uitwerpselen – dat weet toch elk kind.” "De berg ontheiligen staat gelijk met het verwoesten van een kerk of andere religieuze heiligdommen”, zegt Avery Denny van de Dine (Navajo) Hataali Vereniging, die zich ook partij heeft gesteld in de zaak.
woensdag 12 december 2007
Bolivia, bron BBC
Will Bolivia's splits widen in 2008?
By Daniel Schweimler BBC South America correspondent
Bolivia has approved a radical new draft constitution that will give greater power to the country's poor and indigenous people.
It is a major step towards fulfilling the promises made by socialist President Evo Morales as he was swept to power as Bolivia's first indigenous leader nearly two years ago.
There were fireworks and dancing in the streets of the city of Oruro after a special assembly met through the night to debate and vote on the changes.
These include allowing two consecutive five-year terms for presidents, greater state control of the economy and more autonomy for indigenous communities and the provinces.
So reason for Bolivia to rejoice?
Far from it. The constituent assembly that approved the constitution was boycotted by the opposition.
The meeting was moved to Oruro after a similar gathering last month in the city of Sucre led to clashes, buildings being ransacked and several deaths.
Polarised
The draft constitution is still a long way from being enacted.
Firstly, a national referendum is needed on one article. Then the assembly will vote on the entire text. Then another referendum will be called on the full constitution.
No date has yet been set for that vote and few expect it to happen before next September.
The opposition has vowed to fight it every step of the way, saying it is being enacted illegally.
Boris Medina from the right-wing Podemos party said: "Every legal rule has been violated. This constitution is illegal and we'll denounce it in every forum we can."
Meanwhile, Bolivia is becoming increasingly polarised.
President Morales vowed to empower those Bolivians he said have been exploited for too long by a small ruling elite and their foreign backers.
He was talking mostly about indigenous Bolivians who make up more than 60% of the population. But he is also including women, poor peasant farmers and miners.
Last May, he nationalised the oil and gas industries saying that a greater share of the wealth they generate should go to ordinary Bolivians, rather than foreign investors.
Country divided
The trouble is that most of those natural resources are concentrated in the east of the country, around the city of Santa Cruz.
Santa Cruz is now the largest city in Bolivia and growing. It is hot and humid and the majority white population are proud to show off their wealth, driving through the city in 4x4s to shiny new shopping malls.
It is very different to the capital, La Paz, high in the Andes mountains with a predominantly indigenous population, where battered buses and taxis rattle through the narrow streets and many shops look like they have not changed since the 1950s.
Bolivia is a country divided. Between rich and poor, indigenous and white, the mountainous west and the flat, humid east. Increasingly, Bolivians are being forced to decide which side they are on - for Evo and his radical changes, or against.
Last month, six of the country's nine departments held a one-day general strike against the government's policies.
They were the eastern states, centred around Santa Cruz, where the leaders say they want greater autonomy from La Paz. Some, a radical minority, want full independence.
They complain that they generate Bolivia's wealth and do not see why they should subsidise the poor in the mountains.
Many wealthy landowners also oppose government measures to redistribute land to peasant farmers and limit the size of properties.
Room for discussion
The day of the strike, peasant farmers marched from far and wide, some for hours, to the main plaza in La Paz to hear President Morales defend his changes.
After leading a chant in the Aymara language, one indigenous leader told me that Evo Morales had, for the first time, given them a voice and they were not going to quieten down now.
There are extremes on both sides.
In Santa Cruz, groups of right-wing youngsters are reported to be arming themselves.
They say President Morales is backed and is being armed by the Venezuelan leader, Hugo Chavez, and the Cuban government.
Just above La Paz, in the sprawling community of El Alto, 4,000m (13,100 ft) above sea-level and a Morales stronghold, they say they will fight to the death to defend the changes being implemented by the first indigenous-friendly government in Bolivian history.
There is still room for discussion and compromise.
"This the kind of upheaval inevitable whenever radical change is implemented," said a government spokesman.
But the middle ground is becoming increasingly thin. The clashes are becoming ever more frequent and intense.
President Morales, in an attempt to placate his opponents, has called for a referendum which will decide whether he and the regional governors should be able to continue in their posts.
No certainty
Bolivia is still the poorest country in South America, and President Morales finds himself increasingly pressed into battle with a determined opposition, and unable to concentrate on dealing with the problems he was elected to solve.
That, in turn, leads to greater frustration on the part of an impatient population which had high expectations of the former coca leaf grower, a man they saw as one of them.
Bolivia is a country used to political upheaval where many presidents have found their hold on power to be tenuous.
Evo Morales came to office on a huge wave of support and for a year or so enjoyed a period of, by Bolivian standards, relative calm.
There were only two things that the politicians and analysts I spoke to in Bolivia agreed upon.
Firstly, that no-one could with any certainty predict what would happen there. But secondly, that 2008 would, almost certainly, be a difficult, possibly tumultuous year for Bolivia and for President Evo Morales.
By Daniel Schweimler BBC South America correspondent
Bolivia has approved a radical new draft constitution that will give greater power to the country's poor and indigenous people.
It is a major step towards fulfilling the promises made by socialist President Evo Morales as he was swept to power as Bolivia's first indigenous leader nearly two years ago.
There were fireworks and dancing in the streets of the city of Oruro after a special assembly met through the night to debate and vote on the changes.
These include allowing two consecutive five-year terms for presidents, greater state control of the economy and more autonomy for indigenous communities and the provinces.
So reason for Bolivia to rejoice?
Far from it. The constituent assembly that approved the constitution was boycotted by the opposition.
The meeting was moved to Oruro after a similar gathering last month in the city of Sucre led to clashes, buildings being ransacked and several deaths.
Polarised
The draft constitution is still a long way from being enacted.
Firstly, a national referendum is needed on one article. Then the assembly will vote on the entire text. Then another referendum will be called on the full constitution.
No date has yet been set for that vote and few expect it to happen before next September.
The opposition has vowed to fight it every step of the way, saying it is being enacted illegally.
Boris Medina from the right-wing Podemos party said: "Every legal rule has been violated. This constitution is illegal and we'll denounce it in every forum we can."
Meanwhile, Bolivia is becoming increasingly polarised.
President Morales vowed to empower those Bolivians he said have been exploited for too long by a small ruling elite and their foreign backers.
He was talking mostly about indigenous Bolivians who make up more than 60% of the population. But he is also including women, poor peasant farmers and miners.
Last May, he nationalised the oil and gas industries saying that a greater share of the wealth they generate should go to ordinary Bolivians, rather than foreign investors.
Country divided
The trouble is that most of those natural resources are concentrated in the east of the country, around the city of Santa Cruz.
Santa Cruz is now the largest city in Bolivia and growing. It is hot and humid and the majority white population are proud to show off their wealth, driving through the city in 4x4s to shiny new shopping malls.
It is very different to the capital, La Paz, high in the Andes mountains with a predominantly indigenous population, where battered buses and taxis rattle through the narrow streets and many shops look like they have not changed since the 1950s.
Bolivia is a country divided. Between rich and poor, indigenous and white, the mountainous west and the flat, humid east. Increasingly, Bolivians are being forced to decide which side they are on - for Evo and his radical changes, or against.
Last month, six of the country's nine departments held a one-day general strike against the government's policies.
They were the eastern states, centred around Santa Cruz, where the leaders say they want greater autonomy from La Paz. Some, a radical minority, want full independence.
They complain that they generate Bolivia's wealth and do not see why they should subsidise the poor in the mountains.
Many wealthy landowners also oppose government measures to redistribute land to peasant farmers and limit the size of properties.
Room for discussion
The day of the strike, peasant farmers marched from far and wide, some for hours, to the main plaza in La Paz to hear President Morales defend his changes.
After leading a chant in the Aymara language, one indigenous leader told me that Evo Morales had, for the first time, given them a voice and they were not going to quieten down now.
There are extremes on both sides.
In Santa Cruz, groups of right-wing youngsters are reported to be arming themselves.
They say President Morales is backed and is being armed by the Venezuelan leader, Hugo Chavez, and the Cuban government.
Just above La Paz, in the sprawling community of El Alto, 4,000m (13,100 ft) above sea-level and a Morales stronghold, they say they will fight to the death to defend the changes being implemented by the first indigenous-friendly government in Bolivian history.
There is still room for discussion and compromise.
"This the kind of upheaval inevitable whenever radical change is implemented," said a government spokesman.
But the middle ground is becoming increasingly thin. The clashes are becoming ever more frequent and intense.
President Morales, in an attempt to placate his opponents, has called for a referendum which will decide whether he and the regional governors should be able to continue in their posts.
No certainty
Bolivia is still the poorest country in South America, and President Morales finds himself increasingly pressed into battle with a determined opposition, and unable to concentrate on dealing with the problems he was elected to solve.
That, in turn, leads to greater frustration on the part of an impatient population which had high expectations of the former coca leaf grower, a man they saw as one of them.
Bolivia is a country used to political upheaval where many presidents have found their hold on power to be tenuous.
Evo Morales came to office on a huge wave of support and for a year or so enjoyed a period of, by Bolivian standards, relative calm.
There were only two things that the politicians and analysts I spoke to in Bolivia agreed upon.
Firstly, that no-one could with any certainty predict what would happen there. But secondly, that 2008 would, almost certainly, be a difficult, possibly tumultuous year for Bolivia and for President Evo Morales.
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