In the worst political violence in Peru in more than a decade, dozens of indigenous people in the remote Amazon region of Bagua were killed on June 5 when police attempted to shut down a peaceful road blockade. Since April 9, tens of thousands of indigenous people throughout the Peruvian Amazon have blockaded roads, railways, bridges and a state oil pipeline to demand that the government repeal a set of decrees that make it easier for foreign oil, mining and logging companies to exploit their land.

President Alan Garcia’s administration maintained for days that the victims of the Bagua clash were mostly policemen and that only three indigenous protesters had been killed. However, emerging eyewitness reports depicted a scene of unprovoked violence in which some 600 police attacked the protestors, firing automatic weapons on two sides of the blockade and launching teargas grenades and live ammunition from helicopters. The several thousand indigenous protestors were unarmed or carried only wooden spears.

Indigenous groups report that at least 40 protestors were killed, scores more injured, and at least 150 are missing or in police detention; some witnesses say they saw security forces dumping the bodies of protestors into a nearby river. According to government reports, 23 police officers were killed.

In the wake of the violence, the Peruvian Congress has temporarily suspended two of the contentious decrees. The Peruvian cabinet minister met June 15 with the leaders of nearly 400 indigenous communities and signed a pact in which he agreed to present a proposal by Thursday to Peru’s Congress to revoke the decrees. Indigenous groups are demanding full repeal in order to protect their ancestral lands and right to self-determination.

The mainstream media has typically ignored the spiritual basis of the indigenous resistance. “We respect the Mother of the forest, the Mother of the rivers, the Mother through whose wisdom we receive knowledge about healing,” Antonio Iviche Quique, president of the Native Federation of Madre De Dios, said in an interview with Stefana Serafina. “Through that knowledge, our people have survived for thousands of years. This might be difficult to see with mercantile eyes, but for us the land is the fountain of life and survival.”

Please take a moment to speak up. Send a message to Peru’s President Alan Garcia and demand a peaceful end to this conflict, repeal of the executive decrees and full respect for indigenous land rights. You can also write to U.S. President Barack Obama, asking him to denounce the violence in Peru and consider the effect of a further implementation of the free trade agreement between the U.S. and Peru — the impetus for the decrees at the heart of this conflict — which will be discussed in Washington, D.C. this week.

Amazon Watch has set up an emergency fund to support indigenous communities in the region. Please consider making a personal or organizational donation to this effort. The funds will go to medical relief for the wounded, media campaigns led by indigenous organizations, and legal defense for those being charged.