"No government has ever had such a bad relationship with the native communities", says categorically Fermin Tiwi, indigenous Awajún who has an MA in Human Rights, speaking from the office of the Amazon Centre of Anthropology and Practical Application (CAAAP, in Spanish). Tiwi remembers of what, according to him, they have been through and suffered during the five years of Alan García’s government and points out problems with their territories and land ownership, as well as negligence on education, health, social inclusion and public consultation. "The exclusion of indigenous peoples has a long history, but within this government it has had different forms and flavors," he states.
This is our land
Perhaps the most turbulent and, in a way, which is at the heart of the conflict is not the question of ownership over land, but over territories. This is a very important difference. To an indigenous person, where he lives is not a piece of land to be bought or sold, but a place that includes water, air, soil, ancestral spirits. This lack of understanding by the Peruvian government caused riots during García’s era.
As noted by Richard Chase Smith, from the Common Good Institute (IBC, in Spanish), the territory is essential to an indigenous and efforts to title them have been minimal in the last five years. "There was no political will to hold or expand communities that had already been certified," the opposite of what happens to oil concessions. The Public Defender Service maintains that the title has been granted to seven native communities, but Richard has his doubts about it.
Alberto Pizango, president of the Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Amazon (AIDESEP, in Spanish) is more critical and states that no title was given at all. Official figures from the Formalizing Office of Informal Property (COFOPRI, in Spanish) shows that there are 1,265 native Amazonian communities that have been certified out of 1.447 that have been recognized. There are 182 still missing certification as planned - and unfulfilled - in 2010.
Smith says that the worst conflicts have been and will continue being over territory and as an example we can mention the episode of Bagua, a city 162 kilometers from Chachapoyas, in the north of the country. This conflict, which took place in 2009, was undoubtedly the most symbolic and bloodiest of the period, with a death toll of 34 (24 police and 10 civilians), most of them indigenous people.
It is interesting to follow, along with Smith, the path of previous events, leading to a change of how the land in the Amazon region is used, where it is home to the Awajún. A part of the Santiago-Comaina Reserved Zone, which was to become a National Park, was crossed out and there started the grant of concessions for gold mining. In 2008, the Awajún were literally already up in arms over this fact. What happened next was the outburst of conflicts over territory, with little importance given to the indigenous people. An article in the newspaper El Comercio, from 28 of October 2007, even claimed that it was "created the figure of the native ‘that hadn’t been contacted’, unknown, but presumed."
Nonexistent?
Presumed? The amazing thing is that precisely at that moment, the bland INDEP had, within the Ministry of Women and Social Development (MIMDES, in Spanish), a program for these native groups whose most appropriate term should be "indigenous in voluntary isolation." Beatriz Huertas, an expert on the subject, estimates that there should be around five thousand of them in Peru that would be currently divided into five existing land reserves, but perhaps in other places as well.
The existence of isolated indigenous brings to the State the dilemma of either appropriating non-renewable resources or protecting the rights of vulnerable citizens who, among other things, easily succumb to epidemic infections for their lack of health defenses. The isolated were probably scattered in four reserves and, at worst, will live there until the next oil reserve is found.
The issue is not irrelevant and, very recently, the government which is withdrawing, with the approval of the INDEPA, intended to approve the Regulation for Supervising the Explorative and Extractive Activities in the Interior of the Indigenous Territory Reserves. According to the norm, it would be possible to carry out exploration activities in the reserves, despite a Supreme Decree, from 2008, which prohibits this type of activity at these sites. What is striking is that the said Regulation is intended to enlarge the famous Allotment 88 of Camisea, where the "cheapest gas for all Peruvians" would supposedly come from. If it were to be expanded it would reach the Nahua Kugapakori and Nanti Territorial Reserves.
This is no simple matter. As pointed Pizango, "indigenous people are the ones who take care of the Amazon." Although the facts over the issue may be arguable - not all natives perform sustainable activities, some even would be in the business of timber or gold extraction - to just see the Amazon as a repository of resources is somewhat reckless.
Cards on the Amazonian table
Garcia also leaves a legacy of disappointing numbers on health, education and housing. As in almost all Latin American countries, in Peru the indigenous poverty is two fold the urban poverty, amounting to nearly 80% (with 30% living on extreme poverty). The hygiene is minimal (94.2% of the homes in the Amazonian communities have no sanitation) and teenage pregnancy among young native looms.
Pizango, asked what the next government should do with the indigenous issues, sentenced: "exactly the opposite of what the government that is coming to an end has made." The cards are dealt, the information disclosed, the conflict is armed. The indigenous people of Peru do not need compassion they need citizenship. And not even that Garcia was able to give.
Numbers of oblivion
• In Peru there are 77 indigenous ethnic groups
• 57 native languages and 18 language families
• Of these, 16 are Amazonian and two Andean
• The Amazon population is of 332,975 persons
• 80% of this population lives in poverty
• Extreme poverty reaches 30%
• Only 11% of the indigenous aged 18 to 20 years reach to higher education
• From 2006 to 2010 only seven native communities were certified
• 2010 alone saw the drilling of 233 oil wells in the Amazon
• Only 15% of Peru's Amazonian ethnic groups has access to sources of drinking water
• 94.2% of households in these communities do not have sanitation
• 59.1% do not have health facilities
• Only 38% of indigenous children between 6 and 12 years attend bilingual and intercultural school
• Only 15 of the 55 Peruvian Amazonian languages have proper teaching material |
Learn more
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Peruvian environmental policy: Humala or Fujimori?, by
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Campaign and promises to the Peruvian Amazon
