Harvesting of rubber

Within the Putumayo region there were two distinct types of rubber produced and exploited. Castilla elastica made caucho negro, or black rubber and was produced in a tall tree that had to be cut down to harvest.^[16] The method of extracting rubber from this tree was often wasteful, and included cutting deeply into the trunk, releasing all of the rubber in one session. The second type of rubber comes from Hevea brasiliensis, whose product is referred to as jebe or shiringa and can be tapped long term.^[16] The Castilloa tree practically disappeared from the Putumayo region in the span of twenty years.^[17]

"Spiral tapping of Hevea Brasiliensis". One of the methods for harvesting this rubber tree.

The rubber collected by the Peruvian Amazon Company was extracted by the forced use of indigenous labor. The company used multiple approaches to entrap the natives of the region into gathering rubber for them. Barbadian overseers and the 'muchachos de confianza' watched over the native population and made sure they did not run away. The 'muchachos de confianza' were indigenous males recruited from a young age to act as enforcers for the company.^{[lower-alpha 1]} The Barbadians and their native counterpart often acted as the executioners of the plantation managers, and were used to terrorize the workforce into compliance.

These Indians were not station hands or laborers engaged by the company: they were forest Indian, members of the various tribes dwelling in the districts. They are not asked if they want to work rubber; they are forced to do it, just like slaves. If they do not bring in rubber they are flogged, or put in chains, or in the 'cepo' or stocks.

— Roger Casement, Slavery in Peru^[19]

A stock device known as the cepo was also used to punish the natives who did not meet quota. The device laid its victim on their backs and had their legs spread apart, sometimes with their faces pointed to the ground. According to Roger Casement the victims would stay in this device for "hours, sometimes for days, often weeks, and sometimes for months in this painful confinement".^[20]

Managers at Matanzas, Abisinia, La Sabana and other plantations demanded five arrobas of rubber every three months. One arroba was equal to 15 kilos or 30 pounds. At times this was an unobtainable quota. Conditions in the Putumayo region allowed for two to three fabricos a year. A fabrico represented a harvesting period, usually consisting of 75 days. A fabrico was further divided into five periods referred to as puestas, occurring every 10-15 days when the Natives delivered the rubber to a nearby company station.^[21] At the end of the fabrico, all five puestas are carried and transported from the station to either the La Chorrera or El Encanto headquarters, where the rubber then shipped to Iquitos.

Hooking by debts

The company practiced the enganche por deudas system, or "hooking by debts". Enganche entailed getting a person that is working for a company in debt, and keeping them in a perpetual state of indebtedness.^[22] In this way the employee becomes dependent on the company, and is unable to leave the region until they can pay off this debt. This system affected not only the Native work force but also the company employees. Even a few of the station chiefs like Abelardo Agüero were in debt to the company. Many of the Barbadian employees were in debt to the company and under a contract that would not allow them to leave the region until the debt was paid. In Roger Casement's own words, "There is little doubt the men have been robbed."^{[23][lower-alpha 2]} Some of the Barbadian men were swindled out of a portion of their pay. Their contract stipulated that they would receive the equivalent of £5 a month, and at the time £1 equaled 10 Peruvian soles and 50 cents. However, they were only paid 10 Peruvian soles per pound and not the remaining 50 cents per pound.^[25]

Multiple depositions that were given to Walter Ernest Hardenburg and Roger Casement stated that the company violated many of the promises on their contract. Food, medicine and other important items that could be found in a store were sold by the company at extortionate rates.^{[lower-alpha 3]} Roger Casement believed that some of these goods were sold fully beyond 1,000 percent their worth.^[26] Originally, the company stipulated it would provide these necessities however employees found this was often not the case.^[24] The contract also stated that the company would provide a free trip home. However any debts owed to the company would have to be paid off first, and even then it was possible for an administrator of the company to withhold this trip home.

Unrestricted gambling, which the company allowed, was also another factor that affected debts. In place of physical currency, informal documents were written up which promised to pay a gambling debt at a later date. The company advances credit to the employee who is owed the money from gambling, and transfers the debt onto the company books.^[26] Most of the employees in the region, including the Barbadians and "muchachos de confianzas" had "wives", some of them also had children. These dependents were a large factor in the debts.

Robuchon and Whiffen

In July 1903 Eugène Robuchon met Julio Cesar Arana in Iquitos, who hired Robuchon to map out his rubber territories in the Putumayo. Eugène was a French professional explorer who travelled to South America with the hopes of producing ethnographic, zoological, and botanical documents including photographs. In a letter to his father, Eugène wrote that Arana had "shown great kindness" to him and his family. During his time mapping the territory, Robuchon collected a number of artifacts and took many photographs.^[27]

In August 1905, Robuchon sent his wife and family back to France while he continued his work. Around November 14 Robuchon descended on a long overland journey to the Caqueta river, from there he planned to take a canoe to another tributary. It was on this part of the journey, near El Retiro that Eugène Robuchon disappeared, he had recently turned thirty-three years old. It took thirty-seven days before a search party reached Eugène's last known location, however the explorer was nowhere to be found.^[28]

Rumors spawned that Robuchon was murdered and disappeared because he had witnessed as well as photographed atrocities within the Putumayo.^{[29][lower-alpha 4]} Representatives of the Peruvian Amazon Company stated he was killed by the local natives, and was possibly eaten.^[30] The two native guides that were apparently with Eugène also disappeared and were not heard from again.^[31] Robuchon's notes and manuscript appeared in 1907 under the name En el Putumayo y sus afluentes, edited and published by Carlos Rey de Castro,^[30] a friend of Julio C. Arana.^[32] Rey de Castro's editing process was aimed at portraying the newly founded company as a "civilizing force". Several paragraphs were removed from the Spanish copy of the book that would be used as the Peruvian Amazon Company's prospectus.^[33]

One paragraph removed from Robuchon's original manuscript, referred to the native's feelings regarding their exploitation. "the Indians care nothing for the preservation of their rubber trees, and rather desire their destruction ... they think that the whites who have come into their dominions in quest of this valuable plant, will go away when it has disappeared ... With this idea, they regard with favour the disappearance of the rubber trees, which have been the cause of their reduction to slavery."^[34]

Some of the photographs Robuchon took circulated around in Iquitos, generating rumors and eventually the photographs would be used in a newspaper as evidence of crime in the Putumayo. These images provided visual testimony to the abuses and atrocities occurring during the Putumayo genocide.

Carrying materials for construction at La Chorrera. Photograph taken by Eugène Robuchon.

Captain Thomas William Whiffen ventured to the Putumayo region in April 1908, with one of the main intentions of his trip being to solve the disappearance of Robuchon. Whiffen was a British military officer who had been wounded during the Boer war.^[35][36] This injury allowed Whiffen to travel to the Putumayo while still in service. Near the end of October in 1908 Whiffen and his expedition found the remains of a deserted shelter, which John Brown confirmed as Robuchon's last camp. John Brown originally accompanied Robuchon on his trip as well, but left Eugène to find help for the French explorer. Eight "broken photograph plates" were unearthed along with an eye-piece of a sextant. A wrecked raft was also found that Brown confirmed to be Robuchon's, but the raft had no clues. Whiffen and his group returned to La Chorrera on February 22, 1909 with the disappearance of Robuchon still unsolved. Whiffen concluded that Eugène probably died in March or April 1906.^[37]

Whiffen was tracked down by the British Foreign Office in 1909, who requested the captain send a report of his experiences.^[38][36] Thomas Whiffen explained that he had passed the Putumayo region twice in the previous year. The first time, the company knew about his movements in advance and Whiffen believed that the company removed any evidence of abuses. He thought "prisoners were liberated, floggings ceased, and outwardly affairs assumed a peaceful and a humane aspect." On the second journey through the region, he discovered "Hidden in the forest beyond the houses, stocks and whipping posts." In the same report, Whiffen included a first hand account from John Brown. In one incident, Brown relayed when two plantation managers had a tribal chief in custody at Morelia. The managers had a shooting competition, where they tried to shoot the chief's genitals. Afterwards the native was "despatched according to the ordinary method". Referring to the rubber collecting system in the region, Whiffen stated it was "absolutely that of forced labour with its necessary and attendant evils".^[39]

Whiffen also provided some information about the political situation in the region. He believed that the company was in control of the region, with "no effective administration or occupation by the Peruvian Government".^{[lower-alpha 5][41]} Whiffen also stated his belief that the commissario of the Central Government at Lima, as well as the few Peruvian soldiers in the region were "secretly the paid servant[s] of the company". Another revelation provided in his report, was that many of the atrocities were committed by natives, against the natives under the command of company employees. According to Whiffen, the company 'took on' and armed native youths of a tribe, who would then be used against another rival tribe, "thus putting them perhaps at the mercy of their hereditary enemies".^[42][18] These young natives who were forced to act as the enforcers of the company, were at risk of losing their own lives if they were not obedient and did not carry out instructions.^[43] Whiffen was later accused by the company of blackmail.^[44][45][36]

Saldaña

Before he founded his newspaper publications, at the age of 43, Benjamin Saldaña Rocca petitioned a judge to proceed with criminals charges against 18 employees of J.C. Arana y Hermanos. The petition contained excerpts and details of the horrible acts of violence committed against the natives who collect rubber for the company. Saldaña urged the judge "as the bones of thousands of Indians who have been murdered lie scattered round the houses of the sections such as Matanzas, Ultimo Retiro, La Sabana, Santa Catalina, San Victor and all the other dependencies of El Encanto and La Chorrera. ... a visit of inspection [should] be undertaken as soon as possible, before the bones of the victims can be made to disappear." Saldaña Rocca only received silence from the courts.^{[lower-alpha 6]} Two weeks later, on August 22, 1907, he published the first issue of his newspaper La Sancion publicly attacking Arana.^[47]

Matanzas rubber station, Putumayo.

The paper had a variety of articles, covering local news, court reports, port movements, and in nearly every issue of the paper Saldaña published new revelations about Julio César Arana. He published the contents of the petition the courts ignored:^[48] and to corroborate, from the very beginning Saldaña included eyewitness accounts. These were first hand accounts coming from ex-employees of Arana's company, detailing the coercive and abusive system: describing the torture, maiming, and killing of the enslaved natives. In the first issue of La Sancion, Saldaña included a letter and first hand account from Julio Muriedas, detailing crimes at La Chorrera: and crimes committed at Matanzas by the manager Armando Normand. Muriedas relayed that Normand applies 200 lashes or more when the enslaved natives don't arrive with the correct weight of rubber.^{[lower-alpha 7]} When the natives flee, Normand suspends them by their hands and feet before applying fire. This torture is induced so that the children will tell where their fathers are hiding.^[47][50]

Flogging of a Putumayo native, carried out by the employees of Julio César Arana. Photograph taken by Eugène Robuchon.

La Sancion was intended to run twice a week, but soon became a daily publication. By that time, Saldaña Rocca founded a second publication named La Felpa, which was four pages long and contained a political cartoon to make its point. The very first issue of La Felpa contained four different pictures titled "The Crimes of the Putumayo: Flagellations, Mutilations, Tortures, and Target Practice." to describe how the natives were being treated. The last issue of Saldaña Rocca's newspaper came out on February 22, 1908, just three weeks after Hardenburg arrived in Iquitos. The local authorities at Iquitos raided Saldaña's printing store and destroyed some of the equipment before escorting Saldaña out of the city.^[51]

Illustration on the first issue of La Felpa

Hardenburg

Walter Ernest Hardenburg and Walter Perkins were two American engineers who journeyed to the Putumayo region between 1907 and 1908. They previously worked on the Colombian Pacific Railroad, and were on their way to Bolivia to work on the Madeira-Mamoré Railroad: designed to connect northern Bolivia to Brazil. They decided to cross the Andes and descend into Amazonia as part of their journey. They met Colombian General Pablo Monroy, who was stationed in Pasto and had information about the Putumayo river. He warned them it was dangerous, informing them that Colombia and Peru had recently entered a modus vivendi to pull back garrisons and military authorities from the region.^[52] The General believed that the Peruvians were not adhering to the agreement. Monroy also told them that they could travel on a launch from El Encanto, 500 miles down river, to Iquitos. From there he could continue on his journey as well as save weeks of effort.^[53]

They loaded up on supplies, and traveled 150 miles over rough terrain before they reached a navigable point in the Putumayo river. On December 22, 1907, they met Jesús López, a Colombian rubber tapper who told them more about the political situation. He informed the pair that the Peruvians were harassing and violently expelling Colombian settlers. He added that these actions were being carried out by the Peruvian military: with the Peruvian Amazon Rubber Company commanding them. López believed that it was the company's goal to get a hold of all the Colombian concessions by whichever means necessary.

Years ago there were dozens of Colombian rubber stations along the Putumayo, but by the time of Hardenburg's journey, there were only three left. The rest were absorbed or taken by force. López warned them not to take the boat from El Encanto: and instead aim for Remolino which was a Colombian settlement five days further down river. From Remolino they proceeded to another Colombian settlement named La Reserva. David Serrano owned La Reserva; and he agreed to help Walter sell his boat and buy anything he was willing to sell. While waiting for Perkins to arrive, Serrano told Walter about his experience with the Peruvian Amazon Company. A month earlier, employees of the company showed up at his establishment. He owed money to the branch manager at El Encanto, Miguel S. Loayza, who used the debt as an excuse to send a 'commission' to rob Serrano. They chained David to a tree, and raped his wife in front of him. After the employees ransacked the house and stole his rubber: the employees returned to the boat carrying away his wife as well as their small son. David later learned that his wife was forced to become a concubine to Miguel Loayza while their son was used as a personal servant for Miguel.^[54]

The abuse against Serrano caught the attention of the Colombian government, which sent a police inspector named Jesús Orjuela to investigate. Hardenburg decided to go with Orjuela to El Dorado, where Loayza was invited to take part in a diplomatic conference. El Dorado was the last Colombian rubber station downriver.

On January 12, a Peruvian gunboat named the Iquitos followed by the Liberal docked at La Reserva with an unknown number of Peruvian soldiers.^[55] The Liberal was a Peruvian Amazon Company launch.^[56] The party was looking for David Serrano, who fled into the forest. They looted the place, taking away goods from the storehouse and almost two thousand kilos of rubber. La Reserva was the second stop on this excursion: previously, the soldiers attacked La Unión and massacred the Colombians there. La Reserva was burned to the ground and all the rubber brought aboard the ships.^[57]

The administrators of El Encanto, with their boss Miguel S. Loayza (seated.)

The 'Liberal' steamship, owned by the Peruvian Amazon Company. In W.E. Hardenburg's book, he mentions that natives are frequently brought aboard the company's steamships to be sold as slaves in Iquitos.

The two boats traveled downriver to El Encanto, and the same day, January 12, they intercepted the boat Orjuela and Hardenburg were on. The two had made several attempts to contact Miguel Loayza who never showed up to the meeting in El Dorado. Orjuela and Hardenburg were thrown onto the Liberal as captives: where Hardenburg was surprised to be reunited with Perkins. The ship continued on towards El Dorado, which they also destroyed. Upon arrival at El Encanto, Hardenburg protested his arrest, before being informed he would be allowed to leave to Iquitos when the Liberal was ready to sail. Due to their treatment, Hardenburg believed they were going to be murdered by the Peruvians. For their safety, Hardenburg and Perkins lied, stating that they worked for a large American company, so hurting them would have diplomatic consequences. Later, Hardenburg was sent on to Iquitos without Perkins: he spent three months with no news about his companion. They were reunited on April 22: with Perkins still wearing the same clothes he had on from their last encounter.^[58]

Perkins related that he was kept as a house prisoner by Loayza, who forced him to sign a document stating he was being well treated. He also stated the Peruvians later caught up with David Serrano when they returned to La Reserva again: and torched the buildings. The soldiers tied the hands of David Serrano and 28 other men behind their back before shooting them to death. "They not only shot them to death, but horribly mutilated their bodies with their machetes and threw them into the river."^[59]

One day, four months into Hardenburg's stay in Iquitos he was approached by Miguel Galvez, who he had never seen before. He stated that he was the son of Benjamin Saldaña Rocca, a courageous newspaper owner who recently fled from Iquitos and now worked in Lima. Before leaving the city, Saldaña collected all of his documents, which he left to the mother of his son. Miguel Galvez delivered them to Walter Hardenburg, after his father urged him to pass the documents on to someone who would continue to challenge Arana.

Hardenburg started to collect corroborating evidence to go along with the package of documents from Saldaña. He sent and received letters, investigating the operations of the Peruvian Amazon Company. He collected twenty testimonials from different people who all swore to their authenticity to a notary in Iquitos. Deciding it was unsafe for him in Iquitos, Hardenburg left the city in 1909 with his book manuscript, testimonials sent to him, and the documents from Saldaña Rocca. He travelled on a boat from the Booth Steamship Company to Pará and eventually Liverpool.^[60] Hardenburg and Perkins never made it to their original destination in Bolivia to work on the Madeira-Mamoré Railway.

On September 22 1909, a small London-based watchdog magazine named Truth ran an article detailing Hardenburg's experiences in the Putumayo. The article sparked public outrage in England, with revelations that a British-based company was profiting from a slave trade and seemed responsible for atrocities. In an effort to counter the allegations made by Hardenburg, the Peruvian Amazon Company ordered a five man commission to investigate the regions "commercial prospects". The British Foreign Office saw this opportunity to send their own representative on the commission, and they decided to send Roger Casement, who was a Consul-General for Britain in Brazil.^[61] Casement had previously investigated atrocities that were occurring in the Congo Free State, where rubber was also harvested by forced labor.

Years later, in 1912 Hardenburg released his book The Putumayo, the Devil's Paradise. He uses his own personal experience in the Putumayo, and other first hand accounts of others to bring details to light about the company. Among other atrocities, Hardenburg stated that with every ship that left the Putumayo with rubber, five to fifteen native boys and girls made the journey to Iquitos as well. They were sold from £20 to £40 each there, in the capital of the Department of Loreto.^{[62][lower-alpha 8]} Hardenburg stated the following in the conclusion of his book: "to relate all the crimes and infamies committed in this tragic region by this company and its employees in its almost incredible persecution and exploitation of the Indians, would prove an interminable task, so many are the crimes committed in this devil's paradise."^[64]

Weighing the rubber at a company plantation.

Among other cruelties, Hardenburg, Saldaña, and the ex-employees of the company, implicated the company with crimes such as: kidnapping and engaging in slave trade, forced concubinage, the murder of native men, women, and children, as well as Colombians, burning people alive, dismemberment, torture, cruel and unusual punishments, starving the natives to death, among other illegal acts.

Photograph of concubines belonging to the Peruvian Amazon Company at La Chorrera, 1912

Hardenburg compared the companies actions to the Congo atrocities, mentioning a similar system of terror. Outlining the actions of the Peruvian Amazon Company in the Putumayo, he states:^[65]

I am in possession of definite documentary evidence which, I think, justifies me in making the following statements as to the results of this system:—

1. The pacific Indians of the Putumayo are forced to work day and night at the extraction of rubber, without the slightest remuneration except the food necessary to keep them alive.

2. They are kept in the most complete nakedness, many of them not even possessing the biblical fig-leaf.

3. They are robbed of their crops, their women, and their children to satisfy the voracity, lasciviousness, and avarice of this company and its employees, who live on their food and violate their women.

4. They are sold wholesale and retail in Iquitos, at prices that range from £20 to £40 each.

5. They are flogged inhumanly until their bones are laid bare, and great raw sores cover them.

6. They are given no medical treatment, but are left to die, eaten by maggots, when they serve as food for the chiefs' dogs.

7. They are castrated and mutilated, and their ears, fingers, arms, and legs are cut off.

8. They are tortured by means of fire and water, and by tying them up, crucified head down.

9. Their houses and crops are burned and destroyed wantonly and for amusement.

10. They are cut to pieces and dismembered with knives, axes, and machetes.

11. Their children are grasped by the feet and their heads are dashed against trees and walls until their brains fly out.

12. Their old folk are killed when they are no longer able to work for the company.

13. Men, women, and children are shot to provide amusement for the employees or to celebrate the sábado de gloria, or, in preference to this, they are burned with kerosene so that the employees may enjoy their desperate agony.

— Walter E. Hardenburg, The Putumayo, The Devil's Paradise, 1912

Armando Normand

A well educated Bolivian, Normand was the manager of the Matanzas station which he helped to establish. Casement referred to Normand as one of the worst criminals in the entire region of the Putumayo. There are multiple accounts regarding the crimes of Normand. He sanctioned slave raids, he burned men and women with kerosine oil, cut arms and legs off of natives, leaving them to die, bashed children to death,^{[lower-alpha 17]} forced women to be in a relationship with him, and forced them to have abortions. It has been reported that he has murdered some of these 'concubines' forced to be his wife.^[98] Westerman Leavine declared that Normand killed hundreds of natives in the time he served at Matanzas. Westerman was a Barbadian hired by the company around the same time as Normand. Leavine also stated that on more than one occasion, he had seen Normand throw natives who were tied up, into a fire. One witness relayed to Roger Casement, that he had seen with in a month and five days, ten natives killed and burned. Normand also kept trained dogs who ate the corpses of his victims and gnawed at the limbs scattered around Matanzas.^[99] Normand retained %20 of the profits made from the Matanzas station. At the time of Casement's visit in 1910, the company owed Normand around £1,800, and he was likely to get another £300 that harvesting period.^[100] He was arrested in 1913 but escaped from jail in 1915, before ever facing a trial. It is believed that Normand escaped to Brazil and changed his name.^[101]

Victor Macedo

Macedo managed La Chorrera before Arana arrived in the Putumayo region, and continued to manage the plantation until around 1909.^[102] W.E. Hardenburg documented that in 1906, Macedo ordered the deaths of any mutilated natives in the Putumayo. Hardenburg states: "for the following reasons: first, because they consumed food although they could not work; and second, because it looked bad to have these mutilated wretches running about. This wise precaution of Macedo's makes it difficult to find any mutilated Indians there, in spite of the number of mutilations; for, obeying this order, the executioners kill all the Indians they mutilate, after they have suffered what they consider a sufficient space of time."^{[103][lower-alpha 18]} Macedo continued to work for the company after he was replaced as the manager for La Chorrera. Casement implicated Victor with attempting to bribe the Barbadians to withhold information, and cover up the atrocities.^[105] In 1910 Casement estimated that Macedo was making around £3,500 annually from the company.^[106] When the arrest warrant was issued for Macedo around 1913, it was telegraphed to him in Lima from Iquitos. Local police in Lima reportedly 'could not find him.' Macedo later went to court to protest the judge who issued the warrant, to drop the charges. The judge was soon dismissed from public service.^[107] Macedo had first-hand knowledge of the atrocities occurring in other sections, and often saw natives being flogged, sometimes on his orders.^[108]

Victor Macedo

Miguel S. Loayza

Manager of El Encantos, the company's headquarters on the Caraparaná river. W.E Hardenburg mentioned that Miguel kept a harem of around 13 indigenous girls, aged between 9 and 16.^[109] In 1910 Casement estimated that Loayza was getting paid £2,500 annually from commission. After the liquidation of the company, Miguel retained his position as a manager in Arana's enterprise. Loayza and his brother Carlos forced the migration of at least 6 719 people into the Ampiyacu basin around 1922. This was done so Loayza and Arana could retain their native work force. According to Carlos Loayza, 50% of these natives died from disease during the migration.^[110] Miguel and his brother continued to extract labor from these natives until the late 1950s. Miguel died around the 1960s, surviving into his nineties.^[111]

José Inocente Fonseca

A Peruvian overseer who had committed countless crimes against the natives under his charge. He was the manager of Ultimo Retiro. One first hand account sent to Hardenburg implicates Inocente in the massacre of 150 natives. According to Daniel Collantes, Inocente started the massacre, helped by six other employees, killing men, women and children.^[112] Daniel Collantes also detailed being sent out on a correria, or "chasing" by Inocente Fonseca(the original order came from Macedo), with orders to kill all Colombians they found. "He (Inocente) also told them to bring the fingers, ears, and some of the heads of the victims, preserved in salt, as a proof that they had carried out these orders."^[113] Another first hand account published by La Sancion in 1907 mentioned that Inocente murdered one of his nine indigenous concubines out of suspected infidelity.^[114] That same first hand account also describes an event where Inocente told his employees "Look, this is how we celebrate the sábado de gloria here", before shooting an indigenous man and a fifteen year old girl. The man died instantly, while the wounded girl was killed by another employee.^[114] After leaving the company, Inocente was "living openly in Brazil" which had no extradition treaty with Peru.^[115]

Abelardo Agüero

Manager of the Abisinia plantation: said to have committed innumerable crimes against the natives around Abisinia. In 1907 a report published by the American consul at Iquitos stated that Abisinia had a population of one thousand and six hundred natives. There were only one hundred and seventy natives left at the station by 1912.^[116] An ex-employee of the company sent a letter to Benjamin Saldaña Rocca, describing an incident where the writer refused to shoot 35 natives as ordered by Abelardo. Since this employee refused, Abelardo ordered Augusto Jíminez to shoot the 35 men who were in chains. The crime of these 35 natives, was that they tried to run away.^[117] Henry Gielgud informed Casement that Agüero had fled towards Colombia with a retinue of 'muchachos de confianza.' Before Agüero and his native killers left the Putumayo, they set fire to the Boras garden plots.^[118] At the time of Agüero's separation from the region he owed the company between £500 or £600.^[119]

Augusto Jíminez

Jíminez was a lieutenant to Abelardo Agüero at Abisinia: where he committed atrocities against the Boras. He later became the manager of the Morelia station, and then Ultimo Retiro in 1908.^[120] Jíminez was implicated in many abuses and crimes against humanity during his employment in the Putumayo. He was responsible for multiple floggings, homicides, and immolations.^[121] The Hardenburg and Casement depositions provide details regarding two different correrias, or "commissions" that Jimenez was in charge of.^[122][123] One first hand account implicated him in the massacre of 35 natives, which was ordered by Abelardo Agüero. Juan Rosas relays another incident, relating to fifteen natives dying of hunger. Jiménez ordered their execution instead of starving them, he then personally cut the leg off of one man. The native was then dragged away, and burned.^[124] Jiménez was arrested but later escaped from justice and jail, fleeing to Brazil.^[125]

Augusto Jiménez, subchief of the 'Morelia' plantation.

Fidel Velarde

Peruvian manager at Occidente. Velarde introduced a tortuous method of punishment involving water. The victim would have their hands tied behind their back, before being forced under water. Barbadian James Mapp admitted to witnessing four natives suffer this treatment. One of the natives managed to free himself, but drowned in the river. Originally, Fidel ordered James to carry out this punishment, but James refused. An ex-employee named Roso España stated that the natives under Velarde suffer "castigations, flagellations, and clubbing. Some of these Indians suffered from awful wounds, many of them produced by firearms".^[126] Velarde told Roger Casement that at the time in 1910, he had five hundred and thirty natives collecting rubber for him at Occidente.^[127] Describing these workers, Casement said "The men were all under-sized, some half skeletons, at least very underfed".^[128] It was estimated that in 1910 Velarde's station would bring in 50 tons of rubber for the Peruvian Amazon Company.^[129] At the time of Velarde's departure from the region, he owed the company money.^[119]

Elías Martinengui

Many charges were levied against Elias. Roger Casement notes: "Martenengui worked his whole district to death, and gave the Indians no time to plant or find food.^{[lower-alpha 19]} They had to work rubber or be killed, and to work and die ... [they are] walking fragments of humanity."^[131] Barbadian Frederick Bishop stated Elias alone was responsible for the condition of natives at Atenas. Reportedly, Elias worked them hard so that he'd have a large commission to retire with in Lima. Bishop also described an incident where Elías brutally murdered an enslaved concubine after he discovered she had a venereal disease.^[132] His last reported appearance was in 1910, at Lima where he was still a free man.^[133]

Alfredo Montt

Peruvian manager at Atenas: the replacement of Elias Martinengui. Montt was previously the manager at Ultimo Retiro, where he committed atrocities. Natives also starved to death in the stockades under management of Montt.^[134] Montt ordered innumerable floggings against the natives for either being short on rubber, or trying to run away. Like other managers of the company, Montt took women by force as concubines: and killed their husbands if they protested.^[135] At the time of Montt's departure from the region, he owed money to the company.^[119] Roger Casement later found out that Alfredo Montt was tipped off before he could be arrested: and fled to Brazil with a number of Bora natives.^[136]

Alfredo Montt, manager of the Atenas rubber plantation.

Aurelio Rodríguez

Manager at the Santa Catalina station. One account written to W.E. Hardenburg by an ex-employee (Genaro Caporo) of the Peruvian Amazon Company, recalls Aurelio Rodríguez shooting the natives for target practice. The natives had just arrived to his plantation in chains. This was said to have had happened in 1908. Aurelio ran his station with a reign of "Wholesale murder and torture".^[137] Aurelio ordered the construction of a special stockade, with moveable parts meant to create discomfort. The stockade was used to constrain the natives for flagellation and torture.^[138] Juan Rosas witnessed another incident, when a group of 40 were delivered to the plantation from a slave raid. The natives were put in stocks, where they contracted smallpox. Aurelio took them out one by one and shot them for target practice.^[139] Juan A. Tizon admitted to Casement that Aurelio, along with his brother Aristides "had killed hundreds of Indians" during their employment in the Putumayo and made a 50% commission from the rubber their stations collected.^[140] Aurelio retired from the company with a "small fortune" and lived in Iquitos afterwards.^[133]

Aurelio Rodriguez, manager of the Santa Catalina rubber plantation.

Aquiléo Torres

A Colombian who was originally captured by the company for "poaching" on their property. He was imprisoned by Armando Normand and Fidel Velarde for at least a year. They released Aquiléo on the condition that he joined the company.^{[lower-alpha 20]} He was first put to work flogging the natives. It is said that Aquiléo killed scores of the natives, and often he cut the ears off of living people. James Chase reports that he once witnessed Torres cut the ear off of a man, before burning the man's wife alive in front of him.^[142]