10 July 2009
The Ashaninka communities of the Ene Valley, in the districts of Rio Tambo and Pango, Province of Satipo, Junin, Peru, gathered together to celebrate the XIII ordinary Congress of their representative organisation, Central Ashaninka del Rio Ene (CARE), in the community of Pichiquia on the 24th-26th of April 2009 in order to debate the threat of the current project for the construction of the Pakitzapango hydroelectric dam.
Source: Jonathan McLeod with photos of the Ashaninka documenting their fight against Paquitzapango Dam
Ashaninka of the Ene River Peru’s wave of development crashes down on an Amazonian tribe
The Ashaninka people of the Ene River survived centuries of colonial exploitation and a recent and brutal civil war, but a dam project being coordinated by the Peruvian and Brazilian governments will literally take away the ground beneath their feet.
The Ene cuts a dramatic swath in Peru’s selva central, or central jungle, where Andean foothills east of Lima flatten out into Amazonian rainforest. The Ashaninka, who lead a subsistence lifestyle in the Ene Valley, depend on the river for fishing and trade and its shores for farming and hunting. Tens of thousands of Ashaninka will lose their homes, farms, and sacred ancestral lands under a new dam’s floodwaters.
Peru has signed off rights to Electrobrás, a Brazilian electric company (and the continent’s largest,) to build several hydroelectric dams in the Peruvian Amazon. The electricity will be exported to help power Brazil’s burgeoning urban centers. The centerpiece of the project is Pakitzapango Dam, named after the narrow gorge that for the Ashaninka is the mythological birthplace of the Amazonian tribes. At least 5 more dams will follow on other rivers in the region.
The Peruvian government failed to consult or even inform the Ashaninka about the Pakitzapango project, which will effectively end their way of life in the Ene Valley. Not surprisingly the valley’s peoples are enraged.
To see video plotting the flooding of indigenous communities, click here.
Tribal leaders heard about the project over Peruvian radio, and are now desperately trying to mobilize a campaign to stop the dam. Last week at their annual congress, CARE, or Central Ashaninka of the River Ene, drafted a formal declaration of their opposition after three days of emotional condemnations by community representatives.
CARE acts as the Ashaninka’s governing body, helping the people negotiate a daunting flow of outsiders that includes few allies. Loggers and petrol companies are aggressively making in-roads to the valley, and the region is a hotspot for Peru’s flourishing cocaine trade.
In 2003 the government, again without consulting the Ashaninka, gave rights to oil company Pluspetrol to explore and drill in the valley. So far the Ashaninka have repelled Pluspetrol boats with gunfire, indicating that construction of the dam will lead to armed conflict. CARE’s declaration against Pakitzapango states “The Ashaninka of the Ene Valley will NOT permit entry of any institution carrying out any of the mentioned activities related to the building of the dam.]” However Palitzapango has been declared a national security interest for President Alan Garcia’s administration, making military intervention likely and leaving little hope for the Ashaninka.
Since colonial times the Ashaninka have endured a harsh relationship with the outside world. In the 1800’s tens of thousands were enslaved by rubber tappers. It is estimated as much as 80% of Ashaninka died as a result of the rubber trade.
More recently at least 6,000 Ashaninka were killed in Peru’s war with Sendero Luminoso, a Marxist group that terrorized Peru during the 80’s and 90’s. The Ashaninka are still heavily scarred by their experience from the war, in which tribal leaders were shot, hung and, in one case, even crucified in front of their communities. Remnants of Sendero, re-mobilizing as a sophisticated drug cartel, are still a shadowy presence in the lands surrounding the Ene. Reports of Ashaninka still enslaved by Sendero guerillas haunt the valley's residents.
Yet today, chief among the Ashaninka’s concerns are Andean colonists, who for decades have been encouraged by the government to settle and industrialize the region. “Development” is the buzzword in Peru now, easily falling off the lips of Peruvians from desert coast to Andean peaks to no longer impenetrable reaches of the Amazon in this largely impoverished nation. The country’s rapid economic growth gives some credence to Garcia’s ubiquitous slogan of el Peru Avanza or “Peru Forward,” even as it comes at the expense of indigenous peoples.
“I support the dam; anything that advances my country,” said a schoolteacher who lives in one of the colonial settlements along the Ene. He expressed his sympathies for the Ashaninka, but decided against giving his name. Most Peruvians see indigenous tribes such as the Ashaninka as a harmful impediment to the country’s progress.
The Ashaninka are determined to get their own message of development across. “We want access to health, better schools, potable water. We want development that benefits us rather than destroys us,” said Maria Domingas, age 59, an Ashaninka woman who lives in Pamaquiari. After her husband was killed in the war with Sendero, Domingas fled to the city of Satipo with her three daughters. Her eldest daughter, Ruth Buendia, is the charismatic and powerful president of CARE. After a 20 year absence, Domingas recently returned to live in Pamaquiari, now only to face the prospect of her village being flooded. Asked if she also wants to see electricity and roads in her village, her face clouds over in uncertainty. "I don't know, I can't say, I can't say."
Even among other Ashaninka the Ene's tribes have earned a reputation for particular fierceness, independence, and traditionalism. “Whatever ‘development’ means for the Ashaninka, it’s going to happen for them on their own terms,” says Emily Caruso, a British Anthropologist who has been living in Pamaquiari and working with CARE over the past year. And if the Pakitzapango dam gets built? “I don’t want to imagine that. I can’t even think about it.”
Declaration by the Ashaninka Communities of the Ene Valley on Pakitzapango Dam
April 26, 2009
The Ashaninka communities of the Ene Valley, in the districts of Rio Tambo and Pango, Province of Satipo, Junin, Peru, gathered together to celebrate the XIII ordinary Congress of their representative organisation, Central Ashaninka del Rio Ene (CARE), in the community of Pichiquia on the 24th-26th of April 2009 in order to debate the threat of the current project for the construction of the Pakitzapango hydroelectric dam, declare the following:
Considering that:
Our history is one of constant abuse: we were enslaved during the rubber boom, forcibly removed from our territory and subjected to cruel atrocities during the civil war that has unfolded in our territory since the 1980s. The Truth Commission reports that around 6000 Ashaninka were murdered or disappeared during the latter's worst years. While organised in Ashaninka Self-defense Committees, we contributed with our blood and our lives to the pacification of this country, and yet the government still imposes new threats upon us: the concession of our territories to petrol companies and to the construction of the Pakitzapango dam. To us, the latter assaults on our territorial integrity signal a direct attack on our lives and our survival as a People. It leads us to one conclusion: this government intends to exterminate us.
The Ene river is the heart and soul of our territories: it feeds our forests, animals, plants, crops, and most of all, our children. For the Ashaninka People, Pakitzapango is of great cultrual and spiritual importance, as the origins of our People lie within this sacred place. We, the Ashaninka of the Ene have demonstrated our ability to care for our environment; we also helped create the Otishi National Park and Ashaninka Communal Reserve, to biodiversity hotspots which would be severely affected by the construction of the Pakitzapango dam.
Nevertheless, the government persists in ignoring and violating our human rights, as enshrined in the ILO Convention 169 and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. This is made clear in the Ministerial Resolution N. 546-2008-MEM/DM in which the Minister of Energy and Mines grants, to the company ‘Pakitzapango Energia SAC', a concession for a feasibility study to prepare for the constuction of the Pakitzapango hydroelectric dam. This concession was granted without informing or consulting us, demonstrating, once again, the peruvian government's lack of respect towards our way of life and, more fundamentally, our human rights.
Furthermore, it is outrageous that our president Alan Garcia and Brasil's president Lula da Silva are currently in the process of negotiating an energy agreement by which they commit to the building of six hydroelectric dams in Peru, Pakitzapango being the largest of them.
In view of this, the Ashaninka communities of the Ene river:
1. Wholly reject and demand the immediate anulment of the Resolution N. 546-2008-MEM as the Ashaninka communities of the Ene valley were neither informed nor consulted regarding it
2. Demand that the peruvian government respect and unreservedly apply our human rights as enshrined in the ILO Convention 169 and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
3. Insist that the national government, represented by the president Alan Garcia, and public institutions such as the Ministry for Energy and Mines, the Congress of the Republic, the Junin Regional Government and the local Municipalities (Pangoa and Rio Tambo) respect the decisions of the Ashaninka People and call off any negotiation regarding the Pakitzapango hydroelectric dam.
4. Insist that international goverments such as Brasil, represented by Lula Da Silva, respect the decisions of the Ashaninka People and call off any negotiation regarding the Pakitzapango hydroelectric dam.
5. Repudiate the use of the Ashaninka word Pakitzapango in light of its spiritual and cultural significance for the Ashaninka People of Peru.
6. Demand that any activity such as research, promotions, reports, meetings or proposals that support or promote the construction of the Pakitzapango dam are immediately called off. The Ashaninka of the Ene valley will NOT permit the entry of any institution carrying out any of the mentioned activities.
7. Provide our wholehearted support to our orgnisation CARE (Central Ashaninka del Rio Ene) and trust that it will transmit, maintain and defend our common decisions. Furthermore, we entrust it to disseminate our voices in all necessary social and political spaces.
MORE INFORMATION:
Website of the Ashaninka federation CARE (in Spanish)
CONTACT
Glenn Switkes
+55 11-3666-7084