Peruvian state fails to protect indigenous communities

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On 1 September, Edwin Chota, a well-known leader of the Ashéninka community of Alto Tamaya-Saweto in the Ucayali region, was murdered along with three other indigenous leaders.

The men were on their way to a meeting with a number of other community leaders to fight against deforestation, when they were killed by illegal loggers.

For two years, Chota had been trying to call the authorities’ attention to the deforestation of community lands, filing repeated complaints. He had managed to gather photos and the names of several illegal loggers, information which had resulted in numerous death threats.

On 6 June 2014, many were hoping that things were finally going to change. Chota and several other community leaders had met with a broad line-up of representatives from various government bodies, the Ministries of Culture, Defence, the Interior, the Environment, Agriculture, Foreign Relations, as well as the organisation managing the country’s forest resources, OSINFOR, and the national police.

Four months on, the meeting has led to nothing and Chota and his companions are dead.

The Ombudsman’s Office (Defensoria del Pueblo), the independent body protecting citizens’ rights in Peru, which had called the meeting, was very quick to react: “This incident, in itself extremely serious, is all the more grave considering that the indigenous leaders killed have, for years, been denouncing the extreme weakness of the state in the area as well as the vulnerable situation in which they find themselves.

“They have repeatedly asked the authorities to protect their fundamental rights.”

Since the meeting was held, only OSINFOR has travelled to the area, where it conducted an inspection in August. Still nothing has been done to tackle the illegal logging activities or to address the state’s absence in the area.

 

Absence of the state

The absence of the state is at the heart of the problem.

The area where Chota’s community lives lies on the border with Brazil – it is far removed from any representatives of the Peruvian state.

“It takes three days by canoe to get there from the region’s main city, Iquitos. It’s too far away for anyone to bother about it. There are no checks and controls by the Public Prosecutor’s Office; it’s a rights-free zone,” explains Milagros Paz Zegarra, national climate change officer with the Central Autónoma de Trabajadores del Perú (CATP), the union to which the four indigenous leaders were affiliated.

“A proper investigation is needed into this case, to bring those responsible to justice. There also needs to be greater emphasis on protecting the environment and protecting indigenous peoples.

“Many communities live off the forest surrounding them. But as far as the state is concerned, it is not even their land.”

Land rights are another source of disagreement between officials and local communities. Many of them have spent years fighting for recognition from the state that the lands surrounding their villages belongs to them.

The situation has been made worse by the passing, in June, of the paquetazo, a hefty package of neoliberal reforms aimed at stimulating economic growth, with dire consequences for the environment.

The Indigenous Unity Pact (Pacto de Unidad Indigena), comprising trade union, peasant and indigenous organisations, denounced the package as a “violation of indigenous rights” and demanded “respect for our right to possess and own our ancestral lands”.

It is the latest chapter in a process with no certain outcome, with the economic stakes weighing so heavily in the balance. The visibility given to indigenous issues as a result of this tragedy may, however, serve to further their cause.

Provided that fear does not get the upper hand.

This is the scenario that Julia Urrunaga, Peru programme director at the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), warned of during a conference with the foreign press.

“When a well-known person like Edwin is killed and the state does nothing, the others know what risks happening to them too. The message is clear: shut up, no one cares. If you say anything you’ll be killed.”

Washington Bolivar, the head of an indigenous community in Mariscal Caceres in northern Peru, is also speaking out against illegal logging.

During a meeting in Lima on 15 September, he and other indigenous leaders underlined their lack of trust in the local authorities.

The Ombudsman’s Office immediately called for his protection. To avoid history repeating itself.

 

This article has been translated from French.