Suspicions link Chavez to Peru revolt

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By Kelly Hearn

For more than a month, Indian groups drawn mostly from the vast Peruvian Amazon have come out against a package of laws that would open their region to oil and gas drilling, hydroelectric projects and biofuels farming.

Wielding bows, spears and shotguns, activists have overtaken jungle oil facilities, blocked tourist destinations and cut off thoroughfares. The effort is intended to press Peruvian President Alan Garcia to repeal decrees that are designed to bring the country's economic framework in line with a U.S.-Peru free-trade accord.

At one point, Peru's state oil company was forced to shut down a key pipeline after Indians overran a pumping station.

Although weeks of protests have been largely peaceful, a clash between police and protesters on Friday left 155 people wounded and at least 30 dead, including 22 police officers, according to the Peruvian government.

Mr. Garcia and many Peruvians argue that Amazon resources are part of the national patrimony.

Apart from seeking redress for historical grievances, Indian activists fear losing control of natural resources on land occupied by their ancestors long before European colonists arrived.

Some Peruvian officials see the onset of a nationwide insurgency backed by Venzuelan President Hugo Chavez, a socialist leader who is using his country's oil wealth to back like-minded politicians and activists throughout the region.

"We have evidence that Venezuela is supporting the protesters," Peruvian Congressman Edgar Nunez told The Washington Times.

"These people are extremely poor, so you have to ask how they can afford to travel large distances, camp and feed themselves for weeks at a time," said Mr. Nunez, chairman of the Peruvian Congress' national defense committee.

Mr. Nunez said his committee has evidence that Venezuelan funds appear to be flowing to the protesters through ALBA houses, grass-roots support centers named after Mr. Chavez's alternative trading bloc, known as the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA).