Bagua. Peru. 2009.
The government of Peru and its implementation
of the Free Trade Agreement
(zoning 72% of the Peruvian Amazon
for development and exploration)
between Peru and the US led to violent repression
of peaceful protests at Bagua.
Bodies float in rivers.
Women are sacrificing their lives
for the Amazon jungles they call home.
Women are mourning
their men and their children.
Oil wells and rainforests,
uneasy bedfellows
in each other’s tricksy embrace,
with profit the sole measure of progress.
Killed in the streets,
guardians of the green roofs;
their crime
concern for their earth.
There’s always the official line:
terrorist organisations
duped thousands
of these stupid women,
brainless farmers
and other indigenous low life
into opposing progress.
They locals won for now.
We owe them.
Listen!
They protest
their displacement
in the interests of the bottom line.
US Congress is pushing a new model plan
that looks remarkably like the old one.
