British environmental activist reprieved as expulsion suspended
July 9, 2010
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The Peruvian government’s attempt to expel British environmental activist Paul McAuley from the country has been blocked.
A statement from the Ministry of the Interior was given to McAuley on 1 July, ordering him to leave the country by 7 July.
But McAuley applied to a local court for an injunction on the Ministry’s order. That injunction was granted two days ago, permitting him to stay in Peru in the immediate future.
Many people and organizations in Peru and around the world have shown their support for McAuley after the Ministry’s order was made public, including Amnesty International, the International Federation for Human Rights and leading Peruvian Indigenous organization AIDESEP. Hundreds of people have protested in the streets in Iquitos, the town where McAuley lives.
McAuley is president of the Loreto Environmental Network and has spoken out against environmental and human rights abuses in northern Peru for years. Survival has written to Peru’s Minister of the Interior, Octavio Salazar, urging him to revoke the order and permit McAuley to remain in Peru.
