Peru police clear archaeological site of squatters

[Joanne98]

Source: AFP

LIMA — Riot police on horseback clashed with thousands of squatters wielding clubs and rocks, in a pitched battle over an archaeological site near Lima that was occupied a day earlier to demand decent housing conditions.

"It was a successful operation, because a protected area must not be violated," Police Colonel Roberto Lujan told reporters after the hour-long clearing operation that involved 2,000 police and one helicopter and resulted in 50 arrests.

He said the squatters, some 4,500 in all, were enticed into setting up tents at the Pachacamac site by "land traffickers" who misled them into thinking they could live there.

Culture Minister Juan Ossio Acuna said the archaeological site south of Lima was in peril and called for stiff punishment for the instigators of the occupation.



Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5izM3MpaRxNzEnpE8iBrNrX7oRb3w?docId=CNG.bce9273597dcaae5307ada7c2bfd1a6b.61

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Being cruel to homeless people on Christmas Eve.

[Judi Lynn]

1. That's Alan "Two Breakfasts" Garcia for ya. He has a lot of experience harming the poor.

Death squads, massacres during his first term, in the 1980's, and a hideous, heartless assault on Amazon Peruvians protesting his plans to sell their ancient homeland in the Amazon right out from under them to the multinationals.

I'd post photos but I've been notified these photos are too raw for this forum.

For anyone who hasn't seen representative images, search any images site for Bagua Peru massacre.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com.nyud.net:8090/_69u2CK25Cas/SjhlUp_1iSI/AAAAAAAAMCw/_-xHfeNa7zA/s400/PeruSolidarity_Poster3.jpg
Alan Garcia's massacre in the mountains described here:

Peruvian forensic team exhumes bodies from a mass grave victims were forced to dig themselves
May 27, 2008

While Peru celebrates the fruits of record economic growth, poverty reduction and political stability, forensic experts in an isolated, windswept Andean zone are unearthing evidence of a dark past few want to remember. The Peruvian Forensic Anthropology Team started last week to exhume the human remains from Peru’s largest known mass grave in the highland community of Putis, in the Huanta province of Ayacucho. Experts hope to identify the more than 120 victims of the massacre perpetrated in 1984 by the Peruvian military.

~snip~
According to various testimonies gathered during the Commission, soldiers from the military base of Putis persuaded the villagers, who in fear of rebel attacks had abandoned their homes and communities, to come to Putis to start a new life.

“Come, you’ll be safe, that’s why we’re here,” the soldiers said. They gathered all the people living in the mountains. They came to Putis with all their belongings to create a new settlement there, because they thought they were going to be safe living next to the military base,” a solider on duty during the massacre told reporters from daily La Republica in 2001. Held at gunpoint, the men were ordered to dig a large trench − they were told it was going to be for a trout farm. They had unknowingly dug their own grave.

The villagers, including women and children, were then forced into the 7-by-4 and 2-meter deep pit and shot dead by the soldiers. After the massacre, the military stole the villagers’ cattle and other livestock and sold them for profit.

Some of the military identified as responsible for the massacre, were identified by their nom de guerres: “Official Lalo,” “Lieutenant Bareta” and “Commander Oscar.” Other similar mass graves are suspected to lie beneath the vegetation inside Putis’ military base.

More:
http://www.peruviantimes.com/peruvian-forensic-team-exhumes-bodies-from-a-mass-grave-victims-were-forced-to-dig-for-themselves/27401

[TheMadMonk]

2. I suspect the "occupation" was deliberately timed this way.

The hope would have been for the authorities to leave these people alone over X-mas, rather than look like a pack of @#^+S. Give the squatters time to get entrenched and give them time to do enough damage to the site that there would be little reason to try to take it back.

The authorities had the choice of letting the land grabbers have their way, or moving in immediately. I may not agree with how these people were moved, but I do believe they had to be moved without delay.