Bagua by Rose Mry Boehm

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.