The Youth4Truth campaign is all about bringing video cameras, independent media training and editing computers to indigenous Amazon communities involved in the current mobilizations against their government’s attempts to sell out their community lands to the multinational extractive industries.

Cameras are distributed to indigenous youth activists, community leaders and communities living in conflict areas where oil, gas, lumber and mining projects threaten their people’s health, land and survival.

Having used my own resources to buy and bring 56 video cameras to Peru in June, I now count on all my friends to help support the cause by making a small donation. Your donation of even just 10 or 20 bucks can really add up!
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Please watch these horrendous videos. It was worse than I thought. Please beware these are very graphic images:

For more information on the most recent spate of attacks, visit the Peruanista blog.

Join us for an information meeting on the rights of Indigenous People of the Peruvian Amazon.

Where:
Charo 4301 E Valley Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90032

When:
June 4, 2009 from 7:00pm to 9:00pm

For more information, you can email: peru.initiative@yahoo.com
or call Q’orianka Kilcher: 310-696-9424 and Hector Perez-Pacheco: 323-222-5406

TakePart by reading my Blogs and by signing a letter to the Peruvian Government

Hope to see you there!

Thank you to everyone who supported and participated the demonstration we held in front of  Consulate of Peru in Los Angeles on May 26th. Here is some press about the evening and a video of the demonstration.

From La Opinion: (here are excerpts from the article, translated from Spanish)

Artists of the Hollywood film industry and human rights activists marched yesterday in Los Angeles at an event in support of indigenous Peruvians who have launched a campaign to defend the Amazon region.

Since last April 9 thousands of Indians have blocked roads demanding the repeal such laws, while the Peruvian government has opted for the use of military force….The main activist and promoter of the movement for indigenous Peruvians is actress Q’orianka Kilcher, who starred in 2005 in Pocahontas in the film The New World.
“It’s allowing the use of military force, violence and oppression against peaceful people whose only weapons are his presence and his voice,” said Q’orianka.
Her mother Saskia Kilcher, human rights activist, said that since last year, Garcia has passed a series of laws that have given priority to large corporations to take over land belonging to indigenous people.

You can read more press from La Republica and Periodismo

I am saddened that the Peruvian government has waged war on its indigenous peoples basic line of defense, their VOICE, by aggressively suppressing the protests and accurate media coverage.

The Alen Garcia regime is attempting to null the truth about the exploitations and subsequent deaths of local indigenous peoples and is stripping their constitutional rights including the right to hold organized meetings.

-Alex Meraz (Purepecha /Tarasco Nation)

What is the use complaining about what happened in the past if we let it happen all over again and again? I am urging ALL our native American communities here in the US to come together in support of their brothers and sisters in Peru and not allow history repeat itself.

There are tribes who live in voluntary isolation and who are in immediate danger of genocide!

…and now we have arrived at the outcome.

Here I am 3am in the morning trying to wrap my head around all the things happening in Peru. Doing a lot of research and staying up all night long traveling through cyber space to collect some background information. I’m trying to understand the WHY?

I came across this letter written back in 2007 by Alberto Pizango Chota, President of AIDESEP to United States Congress:
The letter is entitled: “Federation Representing 350,000 Indigenous Peoples in Amazon Region Urges Opposition to U.S. – Peru Free Trade Agreement (FTA)”

Read the entire letter here.

In this letter Alberto Pizango Chota warns that the FTA will give incentives for further and irreversible destruction of virgin rain forest, which will in turn increase global warming and displace our communities from their home territories. This is an absolutely unacceptable outcome for our planet, and particularly for the territory where our communities live, as we collectively work to reduce the threat of global warming. Another important piece of info is this video made by AIDESEP in regards to the current PROTESTS in Peru:

The work undertaken by On-Q is something I fully support.  Thousands of indigenous Peruvians are having their homes and natural habitat destroyed in the name of greed and commerce.  The quest to expand the oil, mining and logging industry will have a catastrophic effect on these peoples and all of us.  An old story, except this time the rich get richer and the poor are left without the sacred ground which is, in moral truth, most certainly theirs. They are the ones who protect and defend the rain forest for all of us and all generations to come.

Something must be done to halt this preventable chain of events. Qorianka and her team along with many representatives are giving voice to the disenfranchised.  Support them, in any way you can…
-Colin Farrell

Read more about the demonstration being held in LA on May 26th to protest the Peruvian Government

Hollywood celebrities, activists and Indigenous youth are pulling together in a prayer Vigil and peaceful demonstration in solidarity with 65 tribes, 1000 communities and more than 30,000 indigenous peoples in Peru, who are being criminalized by their government for holding peaceful protests throughout the country’s Amazon region.

Celebrities attending to help raise awareness and speaking at the Vigil are: Q’orianka Kilcher (The New World, The People Speak), Clifton Collins jr (Star Trek, The Horsemen), Alex Meraz (The Twilight Saga-New Moon), Jesse Garcia (Quinceañera).

Other celebrity activists lending their support to this event are Colin Farrell, Woody Harrelson, and Esai Morales.

When: Tuesday, May 26th, 6:30 pm
Where: In front of the Consulate General of Peru , 3450 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90010
What: We call on the Peruvian Government to respect the rights of its Indigenous peoples and refrain from using military force, violence, repression and bloodshed in their response to the Indigenous mobilizations. Furthermore we strongly urge the Peruvian press and media to commit to accurate press coverage of the protests and stop radicalizing and distorting the position of the indigenous protesters in the eyes of the public.

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My Peruvian brothers and sisters are asking for my help in getting the media to pay attention to their struggle and protest. I am planning to travel personally to Peru ASAP–as early as the next two weeks–and am on ‘stand by’ with some cameras to take with me and place with some of the courageous protesters on the front lines. Many of the youth that I am working with are highly gifted with video equipment, and are supported by National Geographic’s “Native Cosmovision” for which the students will produce educational material for secondary school students. Read the rest of this entry >>