Exploitation and the Rubber Trade
Throughout history the wealth of the Forest has attracted adventurers and outcasts in search of the mythical El Dorado. The existence of natives hindered the absolute dominion over the bountiful rubber woods and rivers of gold, and aroused dark hatreds that always meant harm to the Amazonian people. This hatred led to massacres untold.
Orellana, during the Spanish Conquest searched for the hidden city of Gold and was defeated by tropical diseases. However, adventurers were not deterred for ever.
The need for rubber in the early 1900's launched greedy expeditions throughout the world. International corporations settled in Iquitos and from there mastered a vast network of native villages forced under threat of dead to supply rubber on a continuous basis. To trap those who did not comply with their rubber quotas, corporations cunningly utilised the ancestral rivalry among different natives.
Among the known and unknown of massacres, the rubber genocide was well documented in the Putumayo Trial, a summarised version of which follows:
The Putumayo Trial
In the National Library the papers of the Putumayo Trial report that in the year 1907 a trial was opened against "Víctor Macedo, Miguel Loayza, Carlos Miranda, José Inocente Fonseca, Luis Alcorta, Miguel Flores, Armando Normand, Aurelio Rodriguez, Arístides O'Donnell, Alfredo Montt, Abelardo Calderón, Elías Martinengui, Abelardo Agüero, Bartolomé Guevara, Augusto Jiménez, Dagoberto Arriarán and N.Suárez as authors of fraud, theft, burning with fire, rape, poisoning and murder, all of these accompanied by the most cruel tortures such as fire, water, whip and mutilations. The trial report indicates that all these crimes were known and approved by the Arana, Vega y Compañía, and Julio C. Arana y Hnos companies.
"These crimes took place on the tributaries of the Putumayo river, between rivers Igarparaná, Caraparaná, Cahuinarí, Cotuhé Idima, Menage and others."
"In 1903, some 800 Ocaina Indians arrived in "La Chorrera" to deliver the rubber they had harvested, and after having weighed the products the head of section, Fidel Velarde pointed out 25 Indians and accused them of being lazy at work. This was enough for Macedo to have them dressed with a cloth bag, imbibed in kerosene and ignited with fire. The poor Indians ran to the river yelling and crying in despair, and all of them died.
"..............Fonseca has a harem of ten native girls, ranging between 8 and 15 years of age.
"..............Miguel Flores, another of the Putumayo hyenas murdered so many natives that Victor Macedo, afraid of that section's depopulation ordered Flores 'not to kill so many Indians' in his orgies, but only when they did not deliver rubber quotas. Thus, the reformed Flores 'only' killed 40 Indians in the next 2 months but continued to whip and mutilate them. Fingers, arms, ears, legs were cut out and castrations took place every day.
"..............Matanzas is another section of Igara Parana with the greatest number of skeletons, hundreds of Indians have been killed under Normand's orders. This young man, who is barely 22 years old.... has people killed without any mercy and burns them by the hundreds, and whips them by the thousands. The whipped victims receive no cure whatsoever, their wounds get worm-ridden and once they become totally useless for work they are killed with machetes.
"..............Periodically 'correrías' take place in this way: the head of section orders his employees to arm themselves and travel in search of the Indian 'nations' who must collect and deliver rubber every ten days. Those [Indians] who do not comply are whipped 25 times by Barbados Negroes who have arrived in this region to work only as executioners. When the Indians do not attend to the meeting place because they could not harvest rubber, the head of section orders his civilised employees to look for them and to follow them with 10 or 15 savage Indians who are enemies of those they look for. When they are found, their houses are burnt and when they try to escape the employees fire at them. Before the fire is over they get all those who could not leave the hut: elder people, babies, cripples, they all die under the lethal stroke of the Putumayo machete."
Iquitos, August 9th., 1907
In the Putumayo Trial Report Pablo Zumaeta, manager of The Peruvian Amazon Co. Ltd. in Iquitos is quoted in his reply to the accusations "Indians should not be considered witnesses in any trial because they are under transition into civilised life, they have no notion of what Law or Right means. They should be previously educated to have conscience and be able to acknowledge the value and advantages of civilisation ... such purpose existed under the Spanish Viceroy when Indians were reduced in towns where they were taught Spanish and Catholic religion and were provided with adequate laws.
"However, nothing of this sort has taken place in the Putumayo area, where Indians are barely being introduced into civilisation."
Later he blames "the Colombian Rafael Tovar, Eladio Trujillo, Plata and others for the crimes of homicide, theft, rape, women kidnapping, fires, and others. However, after having been imprisoned, they were released upon request of the Colombian consul so as to avoid unpleasant diplomatic problems."
The trial was interrupted without any explanation until 1910 when it had to be resumed upon request of international human right organisations.
The judge, Dr. Paredes went on inspection to the sites together with the English Consul, Sir Roger Cassement.
Dr. Paredes declared: "I could not find any of the main criminals when I arrived in Putumayo. The presence of a Consul caused them fear, the presence of a judge made them flee. They all escaped, some to Brazil, others to Argentina, to Barbados, etc. I could only find new employees and heads of section.
"The real massacres, the hideous crimes peaked in 1906. As of 1907, they decreased a bit, and by the time I arrived in Putumayo, on March 26th., 1911, crimes against the savages were rare and isolated."
