Liberation Through Land Rights in the Peruvian Amazon

IWGIA LIBERATION THROUGH LAND RIGHTS IN THE PERUVIAN AMAZON LIBERATION LIBERATION THROUGH LAND RIGHTS IN THE PERUVIAN AMAZON PEDRO GARCÍA HIERRO DOCUMENT SØREN HVALKOF ANDREW GRAY INTERNATIONAL WORK GROUP FOR INDIGENOUS AFFAIRS US$ 20.00 ISBN 87-90730-05-4 90 LIBERATION THROUGH LAND RIGHTS IN THE PERUVIAN AMAZON Pedro García Hierro Søren Hvalkof Andrew Gray IWGIA Document No. 90 Copenhagen 1998 3 LIBERATION THROUGH LAND RIGHTS IN UCAYALI, PERU Editors: Alejandro Parellada and Søren Hvalkof Copyright: The authors and IWGIA (International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs) ISBN: 87-90730-05-4 ISSN: 0105-4503 Traduction from Spanish: Elaine Bolton Cover, maps and layout: Jorge Monrás Prepres: Christensen Fotosats & Repro Copenhagen, Denmark Print: Eks-Skolens Trykkeri aps Copenhagen, Denmark INTERNATIONAL WORK GROUP FOR INDIGENOUS AFFAIRS Fiolstraede 10, DK 1171 - Copenhagen K, Denmark Tel: (+45) 33 12 47 24 - Fax: (+45) 33 14 77 49 E-mail: [email protected] 4 5 6 CONTENTS Foreword: .............................................................................................8 Atalaya: Caught in a Time Warp by Pedro García Hierro ............................................. 13 From Slavery to Democray: The Indigenous Process of Upper Ucayali and Gran Pajonal by Søren Hvalkof........................................................ 81 Demarcating Development: Titling Indigenous Territories in Peru by Andrew Gray...................................................... 163 Photographers............................................................................ 217 7 8 FOREWORD Atalaya: Caught in a Time Warp by Pedro García Hierro ............................................. 13 From Slavery to Democray: The Indigenous Process of Upper Ucayali and Gran Pajonal by Søren Hvalkof........................................................ 81 Demarcating Development: Titling Indigenous Territories in Peru by Andrew Gray...................................................... 163 ayali is one of the provinces of the Peruvian Amazon whose ceconomy is based on the extraction of natural resources. From the time of the boom in the rubber economy until the beginning of this century the region supplied the national and international markets with rubber. Covering an area of more than one hundred thousand sq. km., its indigenous population belong to the Asháninka, Ashéninka, Yine, Shipibo, Amahuaca, Yaminahua, Cashinahua and Sharanahua groups. Indigenous peoples, in Ucayali as in other parts of the world, consider the demarcation and titling of their territories to be one of their princi- pal demands. In the case of Ucayali, this demand was an urgent need given the serious human rights violations that were being committed against the indigenous population. Ever since the presence of Europeans in this Amazonian region, the extraction of natural resources in Ucayali has only been possible through subjection of the indigenous people to a system of slave labour. In January 1986, complaints were for the first time presented by indigenous Asháninka to the national indigenous organisation, AIDESEP, denouncing the mistreatment inflicted on them by the patrons of Ata- laya. AIDESEP thus began organising a series of visits to the zone in 9 order to document hundreds of similar cases. The system known as “enganche” or “habilitación” was general practised, in which a debt towards a patron was repaid with work. In this way, a pair of trousers or a machete could be the equivalent of one year’s labour. To this abuse could be added the kidnapping of children, the rape of women, the in- carceration of indigenous people and harsh punishment of all attempts at protest or escape. And all of these atrocities were carried out with the approval of the local authorities. The presence of AIDESEP in the zone initially encouraged the escape of some captives, an increase in protests and fear on the part of the authorities. Months later visits to the zone by two commissions, one from the International Labour Organisation and one from the Peruvian In- digenous Institute, were carried out. The official conclusions confirmed serious human rights abuses. In order to regularize the situation the urgent recognition and titling of native communities was recommended. Meanwhile, the situation in Atalaya was getting even worse. The communities were now also caught in the crossfire between anti-indigenous guerrilla movements, the counter-insurgency forces of the State and the drug-traffickers. At the same time, the indigenous organisational process was rapidly gaining strength. In September 1987, the Asháninka established the Regional Indigenous Organisation of Atalaya, OIRA, and together with AIDESEP they formulated a strategy to recover their lands and put an end to the abuse. A similar process had been taking place in the neigh- bouring district of Gran Pajonal where the Ashéninka organisation, OAGP, had titled some of their communities. Following intense negotiations, AIDESEP subsequently signed an Agree- ment with the Ministry of Agriculture for the demarcation and titling of the communities. Given the Peruvian State’s lack of financial resources, IWGIA was thus presented with an ambitious programme of territorial planning in Ucayali, taking the zone of Atalaya as its starting point. In order to obtain the necessary funding, IWGIA approached the Dan- ish government through its international cooperation agency, DANIDA. The response was positive and in 1989 a programme began which was implemented in three phases, ending in 1998. During this period difficult work was carried out with impressive results: the territorial legalisation of more than 200 indigenous communities was achieved, recognition of three reserves for peoples in voluntary isolation was gained and studies for four communal reserves were drawn up. The 10 project also meant the withdrawal of a significant number of the patrons responsible for the mistreatment of the indigenous population. At the same time, thousands of indigenous people who did not exist in official statistics were registered, enabling their participation in local elections and achieving, for the first time, access to municipalities such as Atalaya by the indigenous leaders. The project was innovative in several ways. Firstly, it took as its starting point the definition of communal boundaries by the indigenous them- selves, according to their needs, attempting to demarcate the communities in such a way that they bordered on to each other and thus created continuous territories. Secondly, the project was implemented wholly by the indigenous organisation and its technical team, with no permanent presence in Peru on the part of IWGIA staff. In our opinion, this system of cooperation has enabled the indigenous organisation to gain strong experience in the overall management of large-scale projects, both in the planning of activities and in administrative procedures. The organisation also made excellent achievements in the difficult negotiation process with the authorities. Lastly, costs have been amongst the lowest in Peru for a titling project. The project was also a great challenge for IWGIA. Our organisation, whose main activity is the documentation and dissemination of infor- mation regarding the situation of indigenous peoples, did not have sufficient experience in handling projects of this size. We were learning, along with AIDESEP, through the countless problems which arise in a programme of this kind. We chose to supervise the project through periodic brief visits to Peru and to incorporate the project within IWGIA’s general programme of activities, which covers the exchange of experiences with other indigenous peoples, research work and participation in international processes such as those of the United Nations. This book is an attempt to reflect on the process which made this project possible. In the first section the lawyer, Pedro García Hierro, who was advisor to AIDESEP and to the titling project, gathers together some of the testimonies from enslaved indigenous people which served as the basis for support of the project, together with a socio-legal analysis of the situation. In the second article the anthropologist, Søren Hvalkof, covers the his- tory of the Atalaya and Gran Pajonal region based on his personal experience. Lastly the anthropologist, Andrew Gray, describes and analyses 11 12 ATALAYA, CAUGHT IN A TIME WARP Pedro García Hierro 13 14 he importance of the contribution of each one of the indigenous Tpeoples of the world to the improvement of living conditions in the “global village” has been greatly debated throughout this final dec- ade of the century. Nevertheless, whilst the political arena opens up ever more economic spaces, freeing-up all kinds of investment from legal, work-related, ecological or ethical obstacles, it is rare for an indigenous peoples to be provided with the incentive or minimum conditions to put their wisdom into practice and demonstrate their capacity to move towards the future from an alternative perspective. A couple of years ago, the Asháninka people of the Central Rainfor- est of Peru caused a stir, bringing to light a very commercially success- ful natural medicine: “uña de gato”, one of the remedies which has aroused the greatest interest amongst researchers into illnesses such as AIDS and cancer. Any Asháninka woman over 35 could talk for hours about hundreds of other resources and therapeutic procedures of a similar value. While, as in the case of the Huitotos of Putumayo - whose

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