In the early 1960s, Hugo Blanco launched Peru's first agrarian reform, as an initiative of self-organized campesinos in the valleys of La Convención and Lares in Cuzco department, where an oppressive feudalistic share-cropping system had been in place for generations. When this movement to take back the land was met with repression, he formed a campesino self-defense militia which was the first armed struggle of the radical left in Peru. Captured and sentenced to life in prison in 1962, he was released and exiled following the populist military coup of Gen. Juan Velasco eight years later. He returned to Peru to participate in crafting the new constitution when civilian rule was restored in 1978. In 1980, he was a presidential candidate, and was serving as a senator with the United Left party when he again had to flee the country with Alberto Fujimori's suspension of democratic rule in 1992. He today publishes the journal Lucha Indigena, and is a leading voice in support of the indigenous movement in Peru's Amazon.

Peru's indigenous alliance AIDESEP brought suit before the country's Constitutional Tribunal to halt an oil concession in a vast area of the northern Amazon designated as Block 67. The project is owned by Anglo-French company Perenco, who have pledged to invest $2 billion in the find. But AIDESEP charges that the project could have catastrophic consequences for uncontacted tribes living in the concession area. Perenco, chaired by Oxford University graduate Francois Perrodo, denies that uncontacted tribes exist inside Block 67. Perenco was given approval to start work in Block 67 just thirteen days after the "Amazon's Tiananmen," when armed police violently broke up an indigenous protest near the town of Bagua on June 5, leaving at least 30 dead. (Survival International, Sept 7)

The ten communities of the Amarakaeri Communal Reserve in Peru's rainforest region of Madre de Dios announced a decision Aug. 25 rejecting the operations of the Hunt Oil company on the ancestral territory of the Harakmbut, Yine and Matsigenka peoples. The decision was made at a meeting of regional indigenous leaders at Diamante, Manu province, Madre de Dios region. It was issued in the name of the council leaders of the Amarakaeri Reserve and the Native Federation of the Río Madre de Dios (FENAMAD).

Carlos Navas, mayor of Imazita in Peru's Amazonas region and spokesman for the indigenous aliance AIDESEP, hailed the government's formation of an investigative comission on the Bagua massacre as "an important step" towards reconciliation in the wake of June's deadly unrest. Agriculture Minister Adolfo De Córdova announced Sept. 2 that seven members of the comission have been chosen—three elected by AIDESEP, three chosen by the Executive Branch, and one to represent Peru's regional governments.

Awajún and Wampis indigenous leaders in the valley of Peru's Río Cenepa, in the Cordillera del Cóndor near the Ecuadoran border, issued a statement Aug. 25 giving the Dorato mining company 15 days to quit the territory. The statement came following a resolution by local apus (indigenous leaders) meeting in the town of Imacita, Amazonas region.

Peru issued a formal request to Interpol Aug. 27 for the capture of three Amazon indigenous leaders who have taken political asylum in Nicaragua, including Alberto Pizango, leader of the protest campaign that climaxed in violent conforntations in June. Pizango is accused of "sedition," homicide and attacking the armed forces.

The United Nations Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination issued a formal recommendation Aug. 28 that the government of Peru open an "exhaustive, objective and impartial investigation, including indigenous represetatives" into the June 5 deadly violence that ensued when National Police troops broke up an indigenous road blockade at Devil's Curve in Amazonas region—a bloody episode that the Peruvian press has dubbed the "Baguazo." (24 Horas Libre, Lima, Aug. 29)

After consulting with some 300 apus (traditional chiefs) from Amazon communities, the Peruvian indigenous alliance AIDESEP announced Aug. 24 that it is putting off a decision to return to its paro (protest campaign) to give dialogue with the government more time. But AIDESEP spokesman Salomón Awanash warned the administration of President Alan García to take the talks more seriously. "We don't want advisors, but actors who can make decisions," he said. He also said that AIDESEP is demanding an independent "truth commission" to investigate the June 5 violence at Bagua, in Amazonas region, which has been dubbed the "Amazon's Tiananmen." (El Comercio, Lima, Aug. 24; Agencia Pulsar, Aug. 21)