Signs of Hope in the Peruvian Amazon | Amazon Watch
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Signs of Hope in the Peruvian Amazon

January 13, 2022 | Ricardo Pérez | Eye on the Amazon

Photo credit: Hugo Pérez / El Comercio

Amid the onslaught of negative news, we welcome signs of progress. This Tuesday, January 11, we received word that the confessed trigger-man in the fatal shooting of Indigenous leader Arbildo Meléndez has finally been captured. Redy Rabel Ibarra Córdova admitted to the April 12, 2020 shooting, claiming it was an accident, and was originally released by the judicial system on his own recognizance. 

Arbildo’s widow, Zulema Guevara, has courageously fought for justice in her husband’s case, herself becoming the target of death threats. Due to her persistent efforts, judicial authorities were forced to issue an arrest warrant last year. Though Ibarra’s whereabouts were known to community members, he spent months moving freely through the territory with impunity. His detention was finally carried out by the Kakataibo Indigenous Guard of the community of Santa Marta. Ibarra is now in the hands of the Peruvian police and being held in custody.

Although there is no guarantee that Ibarra will ultimately be held accountable – much less the people who ordered Arbildo’s killing – his detention is an important step. Arbildo, however, is just one of many Indigenous leaders and community spokespeople who have been murdered in recent years in the Peruvian Amazon, primarily in the central region. What is the origin of this tragic situation, and what should be done?

Fraudulent “alternative development” fails and harms Indigenous communities

At the end of 2021, a journalistic investigation, supported by our Amazon Defenders Fund, finally revealed how Peru’s government enabled the colonization of Indigenous territories in the Peruvian Amazon by drug traffickers. The investigation detailed how government authorities expedited land titles for individual settlers while ignoring long-standing requests for community land titles by numerous Indigenous communities. This massive land theft was made possible through the development of an “alternative development strategy,” carried out by multiple levels of the Peruvian government, that promised to counteract illicit drug production.

The reality is that the alternative development strategies have not reduced coca production. Illegal crops in the Peruvian Amazon have increased, as documented by the U.S. government, as have the killings of community leaders. The 2020 murder of Unipacuyacu community leader Arbildo Meléndez Grandes was the first case to gain international attention, illustrating how drug trafficking had gained power in that part of the Peruvian Amazon. Narcotraffickers and their allies had previously assassinated other Kakataibo leaders, whose cases never reached the public eye. Several years prior in 2018, Peru’s alternative development agency, DEVIDA, finally suspended financing for individual land titling carried out by the regional governments of Huánuco and Ucayali. Tremendous damage had already been done, the effects of which are still being felt today.

These ongoing land invasions have created tensions between settlers and Indigenous communities that continue to erupt in violence. 2022 started with reports of possible clashes, along with the announcement that Peru’s Amazonian Indigenous movement is publicly stating the intention of its communities to form an “indigenous army.”

For their part, local governments do not seem to have any intention to repair the damage. On the contrary, everything seems to indicate that they intend to continue granting permission to new settlements right on top of existing Indigenous communities, aggravating the conflict with disturbing impunity.

A step forward: the new protection mechanism

Despite the difficulties, Indigenous communities, their leaders, and allies have launched  a national and international campaign to protect themselves. The effort’s first victory was the creation of the Inter-Agency Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, an initiative led by officials of Peru’s Ministry of Justice. The initiative has  led to a dozen high-level conversations between Indigenous leaders and government ministers to discuss how their ministries can best protect threatened leaders and communities.

One result of these discussions is that the Public Ministry now must use threat denunciations registered in the Justice Ministry as part of their formulation of accusations against alleged perpetrators. This is the kind of improved coordination we hope to see as a result of the new Mechanism. Beyond this, the Attorney General asked Peruvian President Pedro Castillo for a budget for new public prosecutors to investigate and prosecute crimes against human rights defenders, with special protocols for working with threatened Amazon community leaders.

Ongoing challenges

That said, one of the fundamental problems continues to be the lack of a long-term strategy. For example, Peru’s own National Police currently lack capacity to be present across such a large territory. Only in emergency situations are police able to coordinate with Indigenous organizations and their various mechanisms for community-based monitoring or security. Peruvian Amazon communities need police interventions that don’t simply focus on the amount of hectares of coca eradicated or clandestine laboratories destroyed, but instead provide a greater sense of security for the thousands of Indigenous families living in the region.

The Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Women have also made commitments to work together to include the families of murdered leaders in their support programs. It is an important announcement, but they have a long way to go to achieve adequate reparations for families that have suffered from the loss of one or more members to violence.

In turn, the new DEVIDA administration has also promised to have a different strategy to combat drug trafficking, prioritizing community-based alternative development projects designed in close collaboration with Indigenous communities and “immediate” police presence every time there’s an emergency. Right now DEVIDA is working with the Indigenous federation representing Kakataibo communities in the design of a series of economic development projects that should launch starting in January 2022. That said, DEVIDA has yet to signal that it is truly willing to repair the damage caused by its support for individual land titles in the area between 2013 and 2018. Changes in focus and new priorities are not enough. The central problem to be solved is that of land invasions, and DEVIDA has a duty to be very clear about this in its new forms of intervention.

For its part, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), a key ally of the Peruvian government in its counter-narcotics strategy, recently traveled to Pucallpa and met with Indigenous organizations. During the meeting, the USAID team announced that it will work directly with Indigenous organizations in the area to support projects aimed at strengthening their community-based monitoring systems, such as Indigenous patrols using drones and GPS equipment. Importantly, USAID also expressed its intention to support initiatives designed to achieve collective land titles for Indigenous communities.

Without a doubt 2021 was an intense year in the Peruvian Amazon, with some moments where it appeared that we had advanced little, and others where we felt that things were finally moving in the right direction. We were able to support our strategic allies with legal support, international advocacy, media work, and public protests at multiple key moments.

How to move forward in 2022

2022 will continue to be very challenging, and we need the vigilance of all friends of the Amazon to maintain pressure on Peruvian and U.S. agencies. In the short term, Peruvian authorities need to address the humanitarian emergency, mitigate the conflict (facilitate dialogue between the parties and provide economic alternatives to anyone willing to stop producing coca), and disrupt the violent reprisals that drug traffickers will inevitably attempt as a response to the advances by Indigenous communities.

First, we must see a unified, community-based security operation, with participation from both the emerging Indigenous Guards and existing community forest monitoring mechanisms, with clear rules, logistical support, and legal support. Another important step toward undoing all the harm done is for DEVIDA and the regional governments of Huánuco and Ucayali to take responsibility for their participation in the illegal issue of individual land titles since 2013. Finally, the Ministry of Women should provide immediate assistance to the families that have lost loved ones to the violence, with special consideration given to cases like that of Zulema Guevara, widow of Arbildo Meléndez Grandes and the mother of four small children.

Next, the Peruvian government must establish a genuine alternative development strategy for the Amazon, with clear budgets, activities, and timelines. This new strategy should receive political, financial, and technical support from the international community. It should include a territorial restitution program that not only addresses the legal aspects of the land invasions, but considers how to deal with conflicts created when coca producers who occupy Indigenous lands refuse to leave.

This crisis in the central Peruvian Amazon is a clear example of what happens when government programs intervene in territories in an irresponsible way and fail to consult with Indigenous peoples. We must honor the tremendous service that Indigenous communities provide to our societies as they risk their lives to contain the damaging deforestation and threat to biodiversity caused by drug trafficking, illegal logging, and land grabbing.

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