Documentary About Peru's Bagua Massacre Wins Award in Madrid
Documentary About Peru's Bagua Massacre Wins Award in Madrid
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Peruvian Indigenous leader Alberto Pizango is the subject of a new, award winning documentary about an Indigenous uprising against free trade and globalization. | Photo: AFP
Published 7 May 2016
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The film "When Two Worlds Collide" unmasks the violence that globalization unleashed on Peru's Amazon Indigenous communities.
A documentary showing the mass killing of a Peruvian Amazon community won the first prize at the Madrid International Documentary Film Festival, in Spain.
When Two Worlds Collide” tells the story of Alberto Pizango, an Indigenous leader who became one of the most wanted men in Peru. He faces charges for his involvement in the clashes between local communities and military forces due to land conflicts.
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Protests turned deadly in Bagua, Peru. Photo: Reuters
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What started as a protest against the U.S.-Peru Free Trade Agreement over provisions opening the Amazon to oil and gas exploitation and logging turned deady when President Alan Garcia sent in the military to put down the upsrising. The “Bagua Massacre," as it is known, left 33 people dead and hundreds injured in June 2009.
The measures carried out by Garcia to implement the trade deal which drew the anger of affected communities violated Indigenous rights laid out in both the country's constitution and international treaties. Years later, thanks to WikiLeaks, it was shown that Washington shares responsibility for the bloodshed as a U.S. State Department cable warned Garcia that "there would be implications for the recently implemented Peru-US Free Trade Agreement” if the protests aren't dealt with. Another cable actually blames the violence on the Indigenous communities.
More:
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Documentary-About-Perus-Bagua-Massacre-Wins-Award-in-Madrid-20160507-0035.html
