Peru’s Congress uses crisis to try to pass bill that undermines indigenous rights

Peruvian lawmakers are taking advantage of the political and social chaos the country has been immersed in since Pedro Castillo’s failed coup and subsequent ousting to pass a law that undermines protections for isolated indigenous communities. This is what the British Guardian newspaper says in a report published this Friday (23).

The initiative was presented by Jorge Morante and is supported by six deputies from the Popular Force party —the same as Keiko Fujimori, who lost the elections to the now ex-president Castillo and is the daughter of Alberto Fujimori, the dictator who governed the country between 1990 and 2000.

The bill, which seeks to amend a 2006 law, proposes transferring the power to establish indigenous reserves from the Ministry of Culture to regional governments in the Amazon. In practice, these authorities could not only prevent the creation of new reserves, but also eliminate the seven that exist today.

Aidesep (Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Jungle), an entity that brings together different indigenous peoples, sent a legal analysis of the bill back to Congress about ten days ago. In the text, which urges parliamentarians to turn against the initiative, it states that it represents a “serious attack” against indigenous people in isolated communities and could “lead to a genocide” of these communities.

Several other entities dedicated to the protection of indigenous rights also denounced the plan.

According to the Guardian, the proposal still appears to be supported by a group of businessmen in the fields of construction, logging and oil in the Peruvian Amazon. They claim that isolated communities do not exist and that indigenous reserves impede development in the region — allegations propagated in a recent campaign that includes local TV stations, social media and public events.

The attempt to pass the bill takes place amid the social upheaval that the country has been facing since the beginning of the month. After Castillo’s preventive detention and the inauguration of his deputy, Dina Boluarte, his supporters took to the streets to ask, among others, for the dissolution of Congress – the indigenous people are one of the groups that support the former president.

The scale and violence of the acts, which closed airports, blocked highways and led to 27 deaths so far according to the Peruvian Ministry of Health, led Dina to declare a state of emergency for 30 days.

Last week, the president managed to approve the anticipation of the general elections by two years, from 2026 to 2024. A second vote in Congress is necessary, however, to confirm the decision.