"A new dawn for Amazon peoples" is how Alberto Pizango described the repeal by Peru's unicameral Congreso de la República of two laws that would have opened up Amazonian tribal lands to energy and mining companies. Pizango, the leader of the indigenous rights group AIDESEP: the Inter-Ethnic Association of the Peruvian Forest, celebrated Friday's 66-23 vote (no abstentions) repealing legislative decrees 1015 and 1073. As a result of that vote, the 65 protesting Indian tribes suspended their demonstrations and went home.That hard-fought victory came after a 12-day strike in which indigenous protesters paralyzed roads and occupied a hydroelectric plant in Bagua province, disrupting gas production. During the protests tribal groups also seized control of a gas field developing an oil pipeline in northern Peru owned by state-run Petroperu, which was forced to shut off production, and one in southeastern Peru by the Argentine company Pluspetrol. Economists estimate that there is $3.5 billion worth of natural resources in that region of the Amazon basin, hence the political deadlock.

The vote is considered a defeat for President Alan Garcia, who warned that the repeal would be "a very serious, historic mistake." President Garcia decreed the laws under special executive powers awarded by Peru's Congress, bringing their laws into sync with a free trade agreement signed in December with the United States that was protested by a coalition of labor groups including the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

[Image: ENS-Newswire]