Achuar 'Indians' from communities along the Pastazzar River in Peru, close to the Ecuadorian border, have come out publicly - with facial paint - to protest against government plans to auction exploitation rights over almost 75% of the area around their villages to oil, gas and mining companies.
The leaders reckon that more than fifty tribal groups, with a total population of several hundred thousand, are forming alliances to resist the exploitation of the territory.
This - probably doomed - expression of frustration at the political impotence of indigenous peoples has gained attention in the global media: so there is hope that it will be a significant 'straw in the wind' in the movement to redress the wrongs that were wrought by the USA in past centuries; and the alleged infractions of international law by Israel, Turkey and other states in real time.
Territorial encroachment by oil firms in the Amazon, as by Muslims in European cities, is becoming a topic of mass anxiety of which governments have so far proffered no sign of comprehension. Flash points will become more frequent and the potential for the situations to be exploited by opportunist extremists should alarm all responsible citizens globally.
See the Levantine Lozenge.
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