Peru Passes a Packet of Neoliberal Reforms

[TBF]

Peru Passes a Packet of Neoliberal Reforms, Erodes Environmental Protections and Labor Rights
Written by Lynda Sullivan ~ Friday, 25 July 2014 13:52

The Peruvian Congress approved a packet of laws on July 3 which critics say subjects the country to neoliberal reforms that threaten to undermine environmental and labor protections and is a gift to the extractive industry.

The Minister of Economy and Finance Luis Miguel Castilla first presented to Congress on this packet of laws on June 25 in order for them to be debated and approved. This has led to an outcry by civil society, as many have compared this law bundle to the neoliberal 'paquetazos' of the 1980s and 90s by the previous governments of Alan Garcia and Alberto Fujimori governments. President Ollanta Humala rejects this criticism.

The term ‘paquetazo’ refers to a large bundle of laws supposedly aimed at reinvigorating the economy. In the days of the Garcia and Fujimori governments, the introduction of these paquetazos usually lead to hyperinflation, currency devaluation, extreme price hikes, and an increase in social conflicts and police repression. President Humala’s current attempt to reinvigorate the economy centers round removing any obstacles for investing companies (mainly in the extractive industries), which critics say will irreversibly damage the environment and fuel more social unrest ...

More here: http://upsidedownworld.org/main/peru-archives-76/4956-peru-passes-a-packet-of-neoliberal-reforms-erodes-environmental-protections-and-labor-rights

[pa28]

1. Peru now has a license to kill environmental protestors under these laws.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/andes-to-the-amazon/2014/jun/29/peru-licence-to-kill-environmental-protestors

Right now we are sitting at the negotiating table with Peru wrapping the TPP of which they are a member. Peru's pro-industry laws at the expense of everyone else is just the beginning of a race to the bottom TPP will trigger.

Environmental protection regulations in this country will become "obstacles to investment" and legally stripped away.

[Starry Messenger]

2. wth Peru?

I thought Peru had been part of the "turn to the left" in LatAm politics. Doesn't look like it.

[TBF]

3. Here's the dirt, so to speak -

Mining projects, which tend to buy land, often clash with indigenous traditions of communal property, he said.

"The entry of large scale mining companies implies a break with property structures and the existing socio-economic and environmental balance," Echave said in an interview in Lima.

Apurímac has Glencore's US$5.1bn Las Bambas copper mine, Southern Copper's Los Chancas copper-gold deposit, First Quantum Minerals' Haquira copper project, Strike Resources' Apurímac Ferrum iron ore deposit, and the Anama gold project and Anabia copper deposit, both being developed by Minera Aruntani.


Source: http://www.bnamericas.com/news/mining/perus-new-mining-conflict-map

[Starry Messenger]

4. Thank you!

Well, that paints a picture. But if they think opening up mining and instituting neoliberal reform is going to keep civil unrest tamped out...phew.

[joshcryer]

6. Thanks. That explains it.

I'm of the view that resource extraction is above all else. Period. It doesn't matter where or who governs. This only reenforces that for me.

[octoberlib]

5. Did the IMF loan them money?

Neo- liberalism and austerity are usually forced on the countries that accept the loans. And then there'll be civil unrest and either the people will take back their country or there'll be a coup and a fascist dictator will be installed .

[TBF]

7. I don't know about loans specifically

because I haven't read the paper word for word. They are involved for sure -

"The high-level IMF official stressed the greatest challenge Peru faces is to record a further progress in an environment of moderate economic growth by turning its macroeconomic framework into a more competitive scheme."

We know what that means.

Here is the article: http://www.peruthisweek.com/news-imf-expects-peruvian-economy-to-grow-at-twice-the-regional-average-103556

Here is the IMF white paper on Peru: http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/scr/2014/cr1422.pdf

[octoberlib]

8. Thanks!