{news} Fw: USGP-INT URGENT : Assassination attempt against Peruvian Green Party official Flor de María Hurtado

[Justine McCabe]

Dear all,
I'm forwarding messages the USGP International Committee has received from 
Peruvian Greens about attempts to assassinate Flor de Maria Hurtado Valdez, 
Secty General of the Peruvian Green Party and an elected official there.
Flor was an observer at the USGP Presidential nominating convention in 
Milwaukee.

In the next message, I'll be sending the letter the IC has composed and sent 
to Peruvian officials.
I would like to suggest that the CTGP send a copy of this letter (or our own 
version) to Peruvian officials in solidarity with Flor and the Peruvian 
Greens.

Justine McCabe
CTGP rep. to International Committee


----- Original Message ----- 

Subject: USGP-INT URGENT : Assassination attempt against Flor de María 
Hurtado


Friends,

We have received very serious and disturbing news
from Perú. On Friday, February 18, two armed men
made an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate our
dear friend Flor de María Hurtado Valdez, who is
Secretary General of the Peruvian Green Party
(Partido Alternativa Verde de Perú) and an
elected council member in Iquitos, Perú. You
might remember Flor from her work at our
convention in Milwaukee, where she spoke to the
Women's Caucus, our forum on international Green
issues, and our international reception.

The Peruvian Greens are asking for our help, to
protect Flor's life, and to support her tireless
efforts on behalf of Indigenous communities in
the Amazon forest, and for the forest itself.

In the next two messages, we're sending the following:

1) Spanish and English versions of the urgent
letter we received from Perú, reporting the
assassination attempt and asking for our help
(thanks to Trisha Novak for the translation);

2) Spanish and English versions of the letter
we're sending, as requested, to various Peruvian
officials, on Flor's behalf (this document will
be ready later today or tomorrow).

Here's what you can do:

Please distribute both of these documents to your
own state party, to whatever leadership or other
party body can most quickly respond, with a
request for similar letters to the officials (and
copies to the Peruvian Greens). Our letter can be
amended as needed and used as a template.

If possible, please also distribute the February
21 message from González to your party membership
(original Spanish and English translation), via
e-mail lists or newsletter. If yours is like most
Green parties, your membership includes people
who are directly connected to forest protection,
Latin American solidarity, and human rights
organizations, who may not yet be aware of this
situation.

For your information, we've already conducted a
quick but relatively thorough search, and can
find no mention of this incident in any of the
regional or national media, in Perú or elsewhere.
So except for what we do to publicize this threat
on Flor's life, it's unlikely that her danger
will ever be known to those who might be in a
position to help.

For a Green future,

Tony Affigne
  Green Party of Rhode Island
Julia Willebrand
  Green Party of New York State
Co-Chairs, International Committee
Green Party of United States

-------------------------------------------------------
21 February 2005

URGENT - THEY WANT TO ASSASSINATE HER

NOTICE TO THE FEDERATION OF GREEN PARTIES OF THE AMERICAS

The Green Alternative Party of Peru wishes to
report to the member parties of the FPVA the
grievous assassination attempt on the life of the
National Secretary General of our organization,
Flor de María Hurtado Valdez, by two unknown
armed  individuals as she was leaving her home
last Friday afternoon.

Flor de María Hurtado Valdez is leading a
significant mobilization in the Amazon area of
Peru in defense of the Amazon jungles and the
indigenous and native communities.  This struggle
is taking place in the following setting:

l.  The State of Peru and the regional government
of Loreto have undertaken a process of
exploitation of the Amazon forests without
conducting environmental impact studies and
without the ecological zoning set forth in the
laws of Peru, thereby violating their own laws,
without giving recognition to the ancestral right
of the indigenous people to their own territory
in accordance with Agreement 169 of the OIT.

2.  Mafioso groups of traffickers in illegally
cut timber have taken advantage of an irregular
process of auctioning the Amazon forests in order
to continue enriching themselves through
"laundering" lumber.

3.  Thanks to the determined participation of the
Secretary General of the Partido Alternativa
Verde, the regional headquarters of the Peruvian
justice system has just issued a pronouncement,
through a transcendental resolution that favors
the native community, to exclude 700,000 hectares
of Amazon forest.

4.  Twenty-seven million hectares of the Amazon
territory have already been deforested.  This
over-exploitation has resulted in abandonment and
poverty for the peoples of the Amazon area of
Peru and is an assault on the rights of the
indigenous communities, who have not been
contacted [regarding the deforestation of their
lands].

5.  The handing over of the Amazon forests to
mafiosos trafficking in lumber has expelled
indigenous men and women from their lands,
infringing on their ancestral right to use their
own natural resources for subsistence, which
amounts to genocide.

For these reasons, we call on all our colleagues
in the FPVA and the GLOBAL GREENS to initiate a
solidarity chain, requesting respect for the life
our green leader, Flor de María Hurtado Valdez,
as well as to repeal the Ley Forestal Number
27308 of the Forest Concessions in the Amazon
area of Peru and to call a halt to the
nonsensical action of auctioning an additional
14,000,000 hectares, leaving the planet without
its green lungs.

We will greatly appreciate your addressing your
feelings about this situation to the following
e-mail addresses, and we hope for a pronouncement
from the various green parties and from the
Federation requesting guarantees for the life of
Flor de María Hurtado.

Green blessings,

Alex González
President

---------------------------

Presidente Alejandro Toledo
Presidente de la Republica del Perú (President of the Republic of Perú)
Palacio de Gobierno - Lima
atoledo at presidencia.gob.pe

Señor Félix Murazzo Carrillo
Ministro del Interior (Minister of the Interior)
Plaza 30 de Agosto N° 160 - Lima
ministro at mininter.gob.pe
fmurazzo at mininter.gob.pe

Eduardo Bruce Montes de Oca
Presidente Ejecutivo, Instituto Nacional de Radio y Televisión del Perú
   (Executive President, National Institute of Radio and Television)
Av. José Gálvez N° 1040 Santa Beatriz - Lima
presidencia at irtp.com.pe
ebruce at irtp.com.pe

Sr. Robinson Rivadeneyra Reatigui
Presidente del Gobierno Regional de Loreto
   (President of the Regional Government of Loreto)
Av. Abelardo Quiñones Km. 1.5 - Iquitos
rrivadeneyra at gorel.gob.pe

Sr. Alvaro Quijandria Salmon
Ministro de Agricultura (Minister of Agriculture)
Pasaje Francisco de Zela 150 - Lima
aquijandria at minag.gob.pe