Assessment for Lowland Indigenous Peoples in Peru

Risk Assessment | Analytic Summary | References

Risk Assessment

Peru's Amazonian indigenous communities are among the country's poorest and most politically marginalized. Though the successful 2000 presidential campaign of Alejandro Toledo drew strength from the candidate's indigenous heritage, lowland groups were a relatively weak presence in the campaign. There is little reason to expect that the Toledo administration will make dramatic efforts to address their concerns over those of highland indigenous groups. However, with the apparent success in suppressing Peru's violent revolutionary groups, the possibility of random or targeted violence has dramatically declined. For the near-term, lowland groups are likely to continue to face chronic social and cultural injustices, and will continue to organize nonviolently, but the likelihood of a violent rebellion from lowland organizations is relatively small.

Analytic Summary

Peru's lowland indigenous peoples live primarily in the department of Madre de Dios, in the country's Amazonian region (GROUPCON = 3). They account for 1.2% of the Peru's total population of 27,544,305 and comprise more than 80 distinct linguistic families (LANG = 2). The largest groups are the Shipibo, Amuesha, Campa, Piro, and Machiguenga. Isolated from other sectors of Peruvian society, they maintain unique traditional semi-nomadic or agricultural cultures (CUSTOM = 1). However, most Peruvians, both indigenous and non-indigenous alike, are Roman Catholic. There are clear differences between indigenous peoples of the Andean or coastal regions and those of the Amazon. Traditionally, non-indigenous Peruvians referred to those from the Andes as "indios," where Amazonian residents were called "savages." While Andean Indians were integrated into society during the colonial period, Amazonians groups (e.g., Araucanos and Charruas) were attacked and restricted to reservations. One result has been that while many highlanders may not know their tribal origins, most of the Amazon region strongly identify with their tribes.

Because lowland Indians were not included in the debate over indigenous lands, they did not begin to develop relationships with the state until the late 1800s-early 1900s, once their lands had been colonized by others. The government had not considered those lands to be indigenous territory, but as unoccupied land that should be settled to generate economic value. Colonists in the region believed that natives needed to be "civilized" before they could receive rights. Catholic and Protestant missionaries then began to convert lowland peoples, and tried to end their traditional cultures. In the 1940s and 1950s, several bilingual and multicultural education institutions began to arrive in the Amazon region. Thereafter, local tribal leaders have always demanded bilingual education. By the mid-1950s, the state designated Amazon natives as "jungle tribes" and set aside land for them. In 1968, tribes were given land to form "native communities;" these became foundations for the ethnic Indian federations that later developed (e.g., the Aguarunas of the Alto Mayo or the Ashaninkas of the Tambo river).

In the early 1980s, President Fernando Belaunde Terry advocated increased settlement in the Amazon region as a cure for an economic depression. The Pichis-Palazcu project drew many settlers from the Andean region. Agriculture, forestry, gold mining, and oil development occurred, which also used the land of many lowland indigenous people (MIGRANT = 2). These groups then moved further into the forest, deepening their isolation. The only exception were the 8,000 Amuesha and Campa peoples who were granted protection of their land from development.

During the 1980s, Quechua speaking violent grassroots groups, including the Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso) and the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA), emerged in the highland regions of Ayacucho, Apurimac, and Huancavelica. From 1980 to 1987, it is estimated that the Shining Path had carried out over 9,500 attacks on banks, factories, and police; 11,000 people were estimated to have died in the violence. In the early to mid-1990s, the government of Alberto Fujimori waged an anti-terrorism campaign in which the Shining Path's leader, Abimael Guzman was caught and imprisoned. Since then, the group's activities somewhat declined (despite a high-profile takeover of the Japanese Embassy in Lima). However, between 2001 and 2003, remaining Shining Path rebels kidnapped and attacked various indigenous communities in the Peruvian jungle, igniting fears of a resurgence for the group; in 2003 government security forces rescued 70 Ashaninkas indigenous people from the Shining Path. To protect themselves, indigenous communities have formed civilian self-defense groups and demanded protection from the government (CULGR503 = 1).

As is common throughout Latin America, the indigenous are the lowest socio-economic and political strata (ECDIS03 = 3), earning income as labor for agriculture and heavy industry (DEMSTR99 = 8). Illiteracy is high because until 1998, Peru's education system did not accommodate languages other than Spanish; moreover, the school year is still not coordinated with agricultural labor cycles. Many suffer from intestinal disorders and other illnesses associated with the lack of potable water

and sanitation facilities. However, while poverty, health, and educational differentials are high among indigenous and non-indigenous people, their respective birth rates are comparable.

The major grievances of indigenous peoples in the Amazon are territorial autonomy and protection from resource development that damages their local environment and communities (ECOSTR99 = 8). While the government has made a strong effort since 1995 to address lowland peoples' desire for bilingual education, government protection of their lands from development has been less successful (POLSTAT = 4). Although it is a signatory to the International Labor Organization's Convention 169 (which guarantees indigenous peoples rights over their physical and cultural surroundings), the Peruvian constitution does not recognize the rights of indigenous groups over their territories. Companies that operate in the Amazon consistently infringe upon the rights of indigenous communities. Some of the more isolated groups of indigenous face the possibility of extinction, including the Mashco-piros, numbering about 1,100, and the Ashaninkas and Yaminahuas, whose combined group population is approximately 2,200. In recent years, some of the region's organized political groups (e.g., the Confederation of Amazon Nationalities of Peru) have been able to develop linkages with indigenous groups from other countries to share resources and experiences of interacting with the dominant social and economic systems. Local groups have also received some support from international environmental groups in their efforts to force oil developers (mostly within neighboring Ecuador) to limit damage to local ecosystems. Two of the main organizations that represent the indigenous of the Amazon region are the Inter-Ethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Jungle (AIDESEP, formed in 1980) and the Confederation of Amazonian Nationalities of Peru (CONAP, formed in 1987). While both groups are critical of government land policies, CONAP favors a more accommodating approach since it holds that development is inevitable and communities should focus of getting a fair share of the benefits. On the other hand, any territorial encroachments at all are opposed by AIDESEP.

References

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