June 02, 2010

Kilcher arrested at White House

Q’orianka Kilcher and her Mother Saskia Kilcher Arrested at Protest against Peru’s President Alan Garcia at White HouseA protest was held outside of the White House as Peruvian president Alan Garcia met with president Barack Obama on June 1st, 2010. The protesters reminded Garcia of the killings of Indigenous peoples that he ordered a year ago in the Peruvian rainforest region of Bagua.

Actress and activist Q'orianka Kilcher and her mother Saskia Kilcher got arrested after they participated at an act of civil disobedience, demanding the respect of Indigenous peoples and the protection of the Amazon forest in Peru.

The protest was held while president Barack Obama welcomed the Peruvian president in the White House, to discuss bilateral topics which weren’t released to the press. The Peruvian president had to enter the residence by a side door to avoid the protesters.

The protest against the president of Peru Alan Garcia turned into a tense moment when actress and activist Q’orianka Kilcher chained herself to the White House fence and later got arrested along with her mother Saskia Kilcher.


Comment:  We've heard about Q'orianka's activism, but I didn't know she was this hardcore. Way to go, girl! (I can call her a girl because she's young enough to be my granddaughter.)

As Wikipedia notes about Q'orianka, "Her father is a Quechua artist from Peru. Her mother, Saskia Kilcher, is a human-rights activist of Swiss descent, and was born in Alaska and raised in Switzerland."

The moment may have been "tense," but nothing much happens in the video. I guess the police take Q'orianka's mother away at the end, but they don't try to manhandle Q'orianka or anything.

For more on the subject, see Kilcher is Passionate for Activism and "Sedition" and "Savages" in Peru.

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