Clash Over Water Kills One, Injures 18 in Peru

[Judi Lynn]

Clash Over Water Kills One, Injures 18 in Peru
September 16, 2010

LIMA (Reuters) - Peruvian police and protesters opposed to an irrigation project in the country's South clashed on Thursday, killing one man and injuring 18, as President Alan Garcia faces a new conflict over natural resources in the surging economy.

The country's human rights office said the skirmish occurred before dawn in the town of Espinar, 400 miles south of Lima. Police fought with protesters who say the Majes-Siguas II irrigation project will leave Espinar without water, said Silvio Campana of the rights office, which tries to mediate conflicts. The man who died was a bystander. The project calls for a dam and water system capable of irrigating 95,000 acres of agricultural land in the region of Arequipa.

Peru's government has encouraged the growth of export-oriented agricultural farms and the petroleum industry to diversify the economy, which traditionally has been dependent on mining and is forecast to grow abut 7 percent a year.But dozens of conflicts over natural resources have weighed on Garcia, whose disapproval rating is near 60 percent. Last year, three dozen people died in a clash over land rights in the Amazon jungle where indigenous tribes oppose oil exploration.

The government has issued a decree guaranteeing water supplies for residents of Espinar, but residents are upset that the government's investment agency awarded a concession on Monday for the project to a private consortium called Angostura-Siguas.

More:
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=11655495

[Downwinder]

1. Look at the history of water for the Gila River Indian Reservation. That

history seems to be repeating itself in Peru and with other indigenous peoples.

[rabs]

2. Okay, so what really happened

One has to be careful with Reuters. For example, the violence happened on Wednesday night, not on Thursday as Reuters reports.

Also not reported is that there was a general strike called to protest the project. The government on Sept. 9 sent police reinforcements in the event the protests would continue. They did and last night's violence was the result.

This project is part of Alan Garcia's quest to turn over Peruvian resources to multi-national companies.



The fatal victim had a name (but not to Reuters) -- Leoncio Fernández Pacheco, 45, hit by slugs from a shotgun that penetrated his chest and lungs, causing him to bleed to death. Miguel Súmac Paucara, 15, is near death from bullet wounds to his liver and intestines. He was taken to a hospital in Arequipa.


Protests had been ongoing for several days before Wednesday.


Peruvian media reported 10 police had been injured by rocks.

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Majes-Siguas II

Peru's private investment promotion agency ProInversion has awarded the concession for the US$405mn Majes-Siguas II irrigation project to consortium Angostura-Siguas.

Comprised of Spanish firm Cobra Instalaciones y Servicios and Peruvian firm Cosapi, the group has committed to investing over US$200mn in the project, state news agency Andina reported.

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Work includes building the 1.14Bm3 Angostura dam, an 18km water transfer tunnel, a water intake on the Siguas river and installing some 200km of irrigation networks in Pampas de Siguas and Pampas de Majes.

The project, which aims to irrigate 38,500ha of land in Arequipa, Cuzco, Apurimac, Puno, Moquegua and Tacna regions, will receive US$208mn from the central government and US$58mn from the Arequipa regional government.

http://www.bnamericas.com/news/waterandwaste/Angostura-Siguas_group_wins_Majes-Siguas_II_concession1

[Peace Patriot]

3. I don't call them Rotters for nothing. "Clashes" don't kill people. POLICE kill people--

when "neo-liberal" fascist governments like this one order them to!

The passive-tense framing of lethal violence against protestors pisses me off--but it is ONLY ONE corpo-fasicst writing trick intended to blame protestors against corpo-fascist greed for their own deaths and vicious beatings, torture and imprisonment.

:puke:

[Bacchus39]

4. at least 22 police were killed too

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/07/peru-violence