Artigo do Altino Machado: terramagazine.terra.br/blogdaamazonia/blog/2014/09/08/indigenas-ashaninka-sao-assassinados-na-fronteira/ Informação em inglês sobre a morte das lideranças Ashaninka. Press Release: Murder in the Rainforest Four indigenous Ashéninka leaders, Edwin Chota Valera, Jorge Ríos Pérez, Leoncio Quinticima Melendez, and Francisco Pinedo, were murdered in the Peruvian Amazon due to their efforts to obtain legal title to their native community of Alto Tamaya Saweto. The four men were walking a remote rainforest trail through their ancestral homelands to meet with their Ashéninka cousins in Apiwtxa, Brasil to discuss logging and drug trafficking threats along the Peru/Brazil border. The Alto Tamaya Saweto community had recently made important progress in their long struggle for territorial rights, having met this summer with the Presidency of the Council of Ministries (PCM), the new Peruvian Forestry Service (SERFOR), and the state forest supervisory organization (OSINFOR) to advance Saweto’s decade long efforts to downsize the forests of permanent protection (BPP) and legally exclude the inactive forestry concessions overlapping their territory. The Peruvian state must guarantee that Saweto’s legal and administrative proceedings continue while also ensuring the security of this indigenous population that lives in constant threat by illegal loggers and drug traffickers. These defenders of the rainforest and its people must be protected if the extensive forests of the Amazon are to continue their vital roles in maintaining carbon cycles, water cycles, and biodiversity. Other members of the community have fled to Brazil and Pucallpa, Peru. Edwin Chota and Jorge Ríos featured in the April 2013, National Geographic Article, Mahogany’s Last Stand where author Wallace talks of the same trail where the four men from Saweto were killed: “As long as we don’t have title, the loggers don’t respect native ownership,” Chota says, standing at the rear of the canoe, propelling us with thrusts of a ten-foot pole. “They threaten us. They intimidate. They have the guns.” The target of frequent death threats, Chota has repeatedly been forced to seek sanctuary among the Ashéninka’s tribal relatives in Brazil, a two-day hike from here along ancient footpaths.” Scott Wallace’s National Geographic Blog article, Threats abound as Peru cops seize ill-gotten timber, identifies loggers who issued death threats against the people of Saweto. The Society of Threatened Peoples recognized the danger to Edwin Chota’s life in 2012 writing letters to embassies, conducting a video interview with Chota, and writing a short article: Edwin Chota in mortal danger. The New York Times also quoted Edwin Chota in an article in October 2013 about corruption endemic in the prosecution of illegal logging Corruption in Peru aids cutting of rainforest: “There is no law,” Mr. Chota said, during a visit to the sawmill that held the stacks of massive logs that he had followed from his village. “There’s no money to investigate. There’s only money to destroy.” A facebook page, Title Sawetos Land, and petition page have been set up to support Saweto’s struggle for control of their territory. Links of interest The Upper Amazon Conservancy works with Saweto to title their land: upperamazon.org/ The National Geographic Society has documented the threats to Saweto ngm.nationalgeographic/2013/04/mahogany/wallace-text newswatch.nationalgeographic/2013/04/11/threats-abound-as-peru-cops-seize-ill-gotten-timber/ newswatch.nationalgeographic/2011/09/12/loggers-and-natives-face-off-in-the-borderlands-2/ newswatch.nationalgeographic/2011/08/25/dark-edge-of-the-frontier/ The New York Times has written on the subject nytimes/2013/10/19/world/americas/corruption-in-peru-aids-cutting-of-rain-forest.html?pagewanted=all The Society for Threatened Peoples repeatedly documented the threats to Edwin Chota’s life gfbv.de/inhaltsDok.php?id=2475 A Society for Threatened Peoples interview with Edwin Chota regarding threats to Saweto and his person https://youtube/watch?v=d6xcXPTlosw A preliminary article has appeared in El Comercio elcomercio.pe/peru/ucayali/cuatro-ashaninkas-fueron-asesinados-madereros-ilegales-noticia-1755373 The University of Richmond Geographer David Salisbury has worked with Saweto for a decade blog.richmond.edu/dsalisbury/ Salisbury’s short Film Interviews with the Ashéninka shows threats a decade ago https://youtube/watch?v=ytWbGwQrfxw Facebook page (Emory Richey visited Saweto as a U. of Texas undergraduate in 2007 and set up this page and a petition) https://facebook/SawetoAltoTamaya Petition page: Title Saweto’s Land ipetitions/petition/give-saweto-title-to-their-territory/ David S. Salisbury PhD Department of Geography and the Environment University of Richmond, VA 23173 804-289-8661 geography.richmond.edu/faculty/dsalisbu/ blog.richmond.edu/dsalisbury/
Posted on: Mon, 08 Sep 2014 15:06:14 +0000
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