The Peruvian government decreed a 60-day state of emergency on May 9 across various districts in the Amazonian region in the east.
The move is in response to a wave of indigenous protests that began one month earlier against a series of laws granting greater privileges to mining, oil and logging transnationals companies.
The laws allow the companies to loot natural resources, while attacking indigenous rights and community traditions.
Under the emergency decree, all constitutional rights have been suspended — including the right to hold meetings and freedom of movement.
Wagna Musoni, a representative of the indigenous community of Loreto, one of the districts affected by the state of siege, said: "The government can not decree a state of emergency against the just struggle of the Amazonian peoples."
Musomni said his community was "willing to die" to overturn the laws.
A May 8 statement by the Interethnic Association of Development of the Peruvian Jungle (AIDESEP) said the government had begun to viciously repress the indigenous uprising — specifically in the Loreto town of Atalaya.
The government "had ordered the repressive forces of the Peruvian state to attack without regard our indigenous brothers", AIDESEP said. This referred to the government's use of a helicopter and five warships to smash the blockade of the Napo river by the local indigenous community.
This allowed boats belonging to French oil transnational Perenco to pass through.
AIDESEP unites over 1300 Amazonian communities and is leading the uprising.
Danil Marzon, president of the Regional Indigenous Organisation of Atalaya (OIRA), said the communications minister had ordered the closure of Radio Liberty, the only media outlet reporting on the indigenous strike wave in Atalaya.
Since April 9, Peru has been rocked by a wave of protests. Amazonian indigenous peoples have blockaded roads and rivers, taken over gasfields and held street demonstrations in protest against neoliberal laws and the government's attempt to sign a free trade agreement with the US.
On May 8, Servindi news service said the Peruvian Congress, under pressure from protests, had "approved the Report of the Special Multiparty Commission entrusted with studying and recommending a solution to the problems of the indigenous people".
However, despite the report noting that all of the disputed laws violated the constitution, the final version was modified. This left it up to the Constitution Commission to decide on whether or not to overturn the laws.
Juana Huancahuari, parliamentarian for the Peruvian Nationalist Party led by left nationalist Ollanta Humala, said the "protests being carried out by thousands of indigenous people asking for the overturning of these decrees is legitimate", reported Servindi.
"In Peru, a new social force is being forged, born out of the Amazonian and peasant communities themselves, and whose sole will is to preserve their identity, their right to land, territory and a healthy environment for future generations."
A number of indigenous communities and organisations said the protests would continue despite the state of emergency.