Yesterday Peru’s Congress overturned two laws at the heart of the violence between the Indigenous peoples of the Amazon and Peruvian police.

The vote to throw out legislative decrees 1090 and 1064 could delay foreign investment in mining and energy projects in the rain forest, and may prompt Peru and the United States to reevaluate clauses of their free-trade pact. [ID:nN06294730]

President Alan Garcia issued a series of decrees last year under powers Congress gave him to implement the U.S. trade deal and create a framework to regulate investment in the Amazon.

But after deadly violence, he backtracked and asked Congress to overturn two of the most divisive laws, although others remain in effect.

I haven’t sat down to read a comprehensive list of all the laws that impact this region and the people living there, pero I am more interesting in seeing which laws remain in effect and how those will be used. I came across this piece from Foreign Policy in Focus that puts the situation in a more global Latin American context as well as linking the laws in Peru to the imperialist idea that free trade agreements are “gifts” from the first world to the third world. A real interesting read.

Via / Inka Kola News