South America Archives

Peru’s Bishops Urge Peace Amid Violent Protests

by OSV News | Jan 11, 2023 | News

The death toll in violent protests in Peru and a harsh government crackdown climbs to more than 40 people since early December.

Catholic environmental activists in the Amazon hope COP15 proposals will favor the forest and the people who live there.

Death of a man who was thought to be the last of his tribe in the Amazon basin raises concerns about disappearance of Indigenous cultures.

Publishing a two-page plea to the country’s leaders, Peru’s bishops wrote, “Our weak democracy cannot stand the instability any longer.”

The Church organizes aid campaign, shelters people who lost their homes in mudslides caused by Brazil’s worst storms in the last 70 years.

U.N. agencies warned that the number of those suffering from hunger in Latin America and the Caribbean is at its highest point in 15 years.

Land disputes in Brazil intensify under President Jair Bolsonaro, and involve more than 80,000 families, many of whom are of indigenous people.