Nicaragua Grant Asylum to Peruvian Indigenous Leader

By Nima Nayebi

Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

Alberto Pinzango – Photo: Correo HuanucoMANAGUA, Nicaragua – Nicaragua has granted asylum to exiled Peruvian Indian political leader Alberto Pizango, after he requested shelter at the Nicaraguan Embassy in Peru earlier this week.
The Peruvian government has accused Pizango, and indigenous political leader, of instigating a series of clashes in the Amazon that left at least 33 dead. He is wanted for sedition, conspiracy and rebellion.

Tomas Borge, the Nicaraguan ambassador to Peru stated: “Our only choice, keeping in mind the spirit of solidarity that [Nicaraguan] President Daniel Ortega has [with] those thought to be politically persecuted, was to grant political asylum to Mr. Alberto Pizango. We have no other choice and no other alternative than to grant Pizango asylum since this is a strictly political case and this is a person being politically persecuted.”

The controversy arose when the Peruvian government passed Decree 1090, a law that indigenous people contend undermines their control over ancestral lands by empowering Lima to grant mining, logging and drilling permits without consulting area residents. The plans would also effectively ease environmental and developmental restrictions in the area.

In protest, indigenous people blocked main arteries of traffic and shut down a crude oil pipeline that traverses the Amazon and ends in Peru’s north coast. Police forcefully removed protesters from a highway last Friday, triggering an outbreak of violence between Peruvian authorities and the indigenous population. Peru maintains that 24 police officers and nine protesters died during the clash, while indigenous groups claim that 30 to 40 protesters were killed by police.

Author: Impunity Watch Archive