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PERU:
Violence Widens
Gap Between Remote Indigenous
Communities and State
Ramiro
Escobar
LIMA, (IPS) - The murder
of a four-person visiting health
brigade in Peru's northern
Amazon jungle region, blamed on
members of the Awajún indigenous
community, highlighted the
distance between the Peruvian
state and the country's large
aboriginal population.
On Apr. 23, it was reported that
doctors Manuel Lagos and Juan
Carlos Espinar, nurse Marcelo
Huamán, and their assistant
Gladys Salazar had been killed
in the indigenous village of
Tagkejip, in the Amazon jungle
near the Ecuadorian border.
After conflicting reports in the
Peruvian press, it eventually
emerged that they were
apparently murdered when several
local men got angry because the
medical team was violating the
ethnic group's customs by
performing gynaecological exams.
The four health professionals
comprised one of the medical
brigades that Peru's Health
Ministry sends to remote
communities that lack even the
most rudimentary health
services.
The Tagkejip community is one of
the most isolated, located deep
in the heart of the jungle in
the northern Peruvian region of
Amazonas.
On May 12, journalist Luis Peña
Vergaray, who was covering the
story in the nearby indigenous
community of Pampa Entsa, told a
local radio station that a woman
in Tagkejip, the only person who
did not flee the village in the
wake of the killings, had
informed him that the murderers
were local native men.
Peña Vergaray said he stayed in
Pampa Entsa for several days
because he was held there by
force, although he added that he
was treated kindly. Local
indigenous residents said he had
merely been invited to stay
overnight.
He was released when a
commission set up by the
Interior Ministry arrived at
Pampa Entsa.
Peña Vergaray and the Pampa
Entsa village head, Antonio
Mayán, agreed that the murders
should not be blamed on the
Awajún people as a whole, nor on
the entire village of Tagkejip,
but on a few individuals who
were acting under the effects of
mazato, a traditional liquor
based on fermented yucca.
Diógenes Ampam, an Awajún Indian
who holds a master's degree in
Amazon Studies, said the
killings must not go unpunished
because ”we have to preserve our
image.”
But, he told IPS, ”It's as if
someone killed another person in
a district of Lima and all of
the local residents were
blamed.”
For the Awajún people, it is
unacceptable for women's private
parts to be touched by men other
than their husbands, which means
a gynaecological exam could
spark angry reactions, although
not necessarily so violent,
Ampam explained.
He said a big problem with the
Health Ministry brigades is that
they no longer travel to
isolated parts of the country
with an anthropologist or local
indigenous guide.
Health Ministry sources admitted
to IPS that due to a shortage of
funds, the health brigades no
longer travel, as they used to
do, with someone who could help
build cultural and communication
bridges with indigenous
communities.
It is not clear whether the
health brigade whose members
were murdered had coordinated
their visit with local
indigenous organisations -
coordination that is essential,
said Ampam.
Ampam complained about the spate
of recent press reports accusing
the Awajún of growing coca (the
raw material of cocaine) and
opium poppies, and of having
ties to drug trafficking.
Drug trafficking ”is not our
custom, and never will be. We
make our living hunting,
fishing, and growing yucca and
ayahuasca,” Ampam said
indignantly.
Ayahuasca is a natural
hallucinogenic drug used by
shamans (native healers) in
healing rituals.
Anthropologist Carlos Mora, who
has worked in that region,
remarked to IPS that it is
possible that some members of
indigenous communities are
involved in the drug trade, but
that, just as in the case of the
health brigade murders, this
does not mean that the entire
community or ethnic group should
be held responsible for the
activities of a few individuals.
Mora cited the case of Manuel
Díaz, an indigenous mayor in a
smaller village in the area, who
was arrested, tried and
convicted for trying to sell
opium poppy latex.
But Ampam pointed out that Díaz,
who served a prison term on drug
trafficking charges, was
actually introduced to the trade
by corrupt members of the police
force.
He also said such cases crop up
in indigenous communities
located near towns with large
mestizo (mixed-race)
populations.
The Awajún form part of the
larger Shuar ethnic group, also
known as Jíbaros by outsiders.
The Shuar live in the northern
regions of Amazonas, Cajamarca,
Loreto and San Martín. The
Awajún subgroup numbers between
45,000 and 60,000. Other
subgroups are the Wampi, Achuar
and Candoshi. The Shuar also
live across the border in
Ecuador.
The Awajún depend on fishing,
hunting and small-scale farming
for survival. Mora said they
have a strong tradition of
warfare. And although he added
that they are ”not an
essentially violent society,” he
said that he himself has
witnessed violent incidents like
the murders of the health
professionals.
The army sought the assistance
of the Awajún during Peru's
brief 1995 border war with
Ecuador. In exchange, the
government of Alberto Fujimori
(1990-2000) promised investment
in new roads, health clinics and
other public works once the
conflict was over.
But none of the pledges was
fulfilled, in keeping with
decades of broken promises made
by the Peruvian state to the
country's 64 indigenous groups,
whose members make up more than
40 percent of a total population
of 28 million.
Article 15 of the Peruvian penal
code takes cultural differences
into account, establishing that
punishment should be attenuated
if the perpetrators, ”due to
their culture or customs,” do
not understand ”the criminal
nature of their actions.”
In many indigenous areas of
Peru, the presence of the state
is very weak. Tagkejip, for
example, does not even have a
school.
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