Indigenous People Fight Against Peru’s “Law of the Jungle”

posted on July 14th, 2009 in Amazon Jungle, Environment, Indigenous Rights, Peru

Protestors in the Peruvian Amazon

Native Protestors at the entrance of Yurimagua, in the northern Peruvian Amazon

Blood at the Blockade: Peru’s Indigenous Uprising

NACLA (May-June 2009)

Gerardo Rénique

On June 6, near a stretch of highway known as the Devil’s Curve in the northern Peruvian Amazon, police began firing live rounds into a multitude of indigenous protestors – many wearing feathered crowns and carrying spears. In the nearby towns of Bagua Grande, Bagua Chica, and Utcubamba, shots also came from police snipers on rooftops, and from a helicopter that hovered above the mass of people. Both natives and mestizos took to the streets protesting the bloody repression.

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Ancient Inca Sun Pillars Still Mark June Solstice

posted on July 1st, 2009 in Andes Mountains, Archaeology, Incas, Peru, Recent Discoveries

Machu Picchu Torreon at Machu Picchu measures the June solstice

(Above: The Torreón at Machu Picchu is a tower built around a stone that still has a carved groove in it. Once a year, the groove is illuminated as the rising sun shines through one window each June solstice. The window also frames the Pleiades constellation, which was used by the Incas to decide when to plant potatoes. At its height in the early 16th century, the Incas’ 2,500-mile-long empire was littered with celestial observatories, which aided the Incas in the precise sowing and reaping of various crops–KM).

When the Sun Hits the White Granite Boulder, it’s the Solstice

By Nicholas Asheshov

Caretas

On June 21, just over a week from now, the winter solstice, easily the most important day in the ancient Andes, falls due and brilliant rays of sun will be flooding just after dawn through carefully-designed Inca windows onto sharp once-a-year marker stones…

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