Putumayo genocide
Part of the Amazon rubber boom
Huitoto natives in conditions of slavery
LocationColombia and Peru
Date1879 (1879) – 1912 (1912)
Attack type
Slavery, Genocidal rape, torture, Crimes against humanity
Deaths40,000 to 250,000+[1][2]
PerpetratorsPeruvian Amazon Company

The Putumayo genocide (Spanish: Genocidio del Putumayo) is the term which is used in reference to the enslavement, massacres and ethnocide of the Indigenous population of the Amazon at the hands of the Peruvian Amazon Company, specifically in the area between the Putumayo River and the Caquetá River during the Amazon rubber boom period from 1879 to 1912.[1]

Background

The Cinchona boom and the beginning of the Amazon rubber boom in 1879 encouraged exploration and settlement in the uncolonized land between Brazil, Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia. One of the first prominent expeditions in the region was carried out by Rafael Reyes in 1874 in search of Quina. Reyes operated in the Putumayo between 1874–84[3] and stationed his headquarters at La Sofia. Members of this expedition would later come back to the region, noting the abundance of rubber trees and indigenous tribes to potentially use as a work force. The years between 1884-1895 saw a wave of new people seeking to exploit these resources. Some of these people include the Calderón hermanos, Crisóstomo Hernández and Benjamin Larrañaga.[4] The last two were Colombians and veterans of the original Reyes expedition in 1874.[5] Benjamin Larrañaga along with Hernández set up operations in what would become La Chorrera, and the Calderón hermanos in El Encanto. These men made it their business to exploit the Huitotos, the Andokes, and the Boras tribes into debt: with the goal of extracting rubber in mind.[lower-alpha 1][lower-alpha 2]

In 1896, Julio César Arana was interested in expanding his small peddling business in Iquitos: and traveled to the Putumayo after hearing about the Colombians successes. A year later, Arana's biggest competitors in Peru, Carlos Fitzcarrald and Antonio de Vaca Diez would die in a boating accident in the Urubamba river. Along with the Putumayo, the basins of the Urubamba and the Madre de Dios were the biggest producers of rubber for Peru. After the collapse of the Fitzcarrald & Vaca diez enterprises and their partnership with Nícolas Suarez, the Putumayo became the only significant producer of rubber in the country.[8] Arana entered a partnership with Larrañaga, forming Larrañaga, Arana y compañia in 1902.[9] After Benjamin Larrañaga's death on December 21, 1903 Arana bought out Rafael Larrañaga's share from the company: "taking advantage of their ignorance and stupidity to rob them scandalously."[10] By this time, Arana was the main master of the Putumayo: only challenged by insignificant bands of Colombian rubber tappers and indigenous tribes not yet under his control. To administer his territory, the management was split between the two departments of La Chorrera and El Encanto. La Chorrera was the company headquarters along the Igaraparaná river: while the headquarters for the Caraparaná river was in El Encanto. All of the subsections and rubber tappers had their products delivered here, to later be exported through Iquitos.[11]

Indigenous Witoto workers at one of Julio César Arana’s rubber plantations

Some of the atrocities suffered by the natives at the hands of Arana's company include but are not limited to: enslavement, kidnapping, separation of families, rape, starvation, being used as target practice, physical abuse including flagellation that often results in death, burning to death, having their children 'bashed' to death, dismemberment, as well as allowing a wounded native to bleed to death from said dismemberment.[12] When they are too old, or are no longer able to work they are murdered.

Photograph of the 'concubines' of the Peruvian Amazon Company at La Chorrera, 1912.

In 1907 after successful business meetings in England, Julio Arana formed his company into the Peruvian Amazon Company, Ltd. The Peruvian government ceded to the Peruvian Amazon Company the Amazon territories north of Loreto, after the company's founder Julio César Arana purchased the land. Shortly after, private hosts of Arana – brought from Barbados –[13] which consisted of forcing natives to work for him in exchange for "favors and protection", with the offer being unable to deny as disagreements led to their kidnapping by mercenaries paid by the company. The natives were subjected to isolation processes in remote areas to collect rubber in inhuman conditions and if they did not meet the required amount, they were punished with death or were disappeared in "distant camps" where ninety percent of the affected Amazonian populations were annihilated.[14]

Photograph of the Barbadian John Brown, interpreter for consular commission to the Putumayo in 1912

The Peruvian Amazon Company

The Peruvian Amazon Rubber Company was registered in London on September 6, 1907[15][lower-alpha 3] as a successor to J.C. Arana y Hermanos, which had its assets acquired by the new company. There were 196 Barbadian men employed in the Putumayo by J.C. Arana y Hermanos around 1904, and many of them became employed by the Peruvian Amazon Company.[17] These Barbadians were British subjects. The company prospectus was drafted by Eugene Robuchon and edited by Peruvian consul-general Carlos Rey De Castro.[18][lower-alpha 4] Rey de Castro's editing process intended to portray this new company as a "civilizing force" and led to the removal of several paragraphs written by Robuchon from the final publication.[20][21] The prospectus stated that there were more than forty stations delivering rubber to La Chorrera's agency, and eighteen stations delivering to El Encanto.[22] Roger Casement believed that "the English Company is only English in name."[23][lower-alpha 5]

Indigenous workforce

To secure their workforce, the Peruvians and Colombians initiated slave raids, where many were either captured or killed. The slavers would bring in chiefs and their tribes, inducing them to collect rubber under the threat of death. When the chiefs refused, or did not bring in enough rubber they were murdered as an example. Through fear, and entrapping the natives into a debt relationship the exploiters managed a system of slavery. Some natives were recruited from a very young age to act as trusted killers for the company. These natives became known as the 'muchachos de confianza.' The Barbadians and 'muchachos de confianza' acted as the enforcers and executioners of the plantation managers. They managed the collection of rubber along with the tribal chiefs that were allowed to live.[25]

Natives would be sent out into the wild forest by their exploiters to collect rubber. Managers working for the Peruvian Amazon Company earned a commission, based on the amount of rubber collected by their indigenous workers. A weight quota was set in place for each plantation, dictated by a manager. Punishments varied for not meeting the quota, ranging from torture, flagellation, immolation, dismemberment, and or execution.

Flogging of a Putumayo native, carried out by the employees of Julio César Arana

On top of collecting rubber for the Company, natives were expected to provide Food, firewood, labour for clearing paths in the forest for roads in between stations, the construction of bridges and buildings, as well as clearing the forest around the stations themselves and any "every other conceivable form of demand" including giving their children or wives away to company employees. The Natives carried this work for the Company under threat of terrorization or death, with no renumeration for their efforts. [26] The Amazon Journal of Roger Casement[lower-alpha 6] and The Putumayo, The Devil's Paradise, by Walter Hardenburg make numerous mentions of starvation among the indigenous population.

"The trees are valueless without the Indians, who, besides getting rubber for them, do everything else these creatures need - feed them, build for them, run for them and carry for them and supply them with wives and concubines. They couldn't get this done by persuasion, so they slew and massacred and enslaved by terror, and that is the foundation. What we see today is merely the logical sequence of events - the cowed and entirely subdued Indians, reduced in numbers, hopelessly obedient, with no refuge and no retreat, and no redress."

— Roger Casement, The Amazon Journal of Roger Casement[28]

Muchachos de Confianza

The "Muchachos de Confianza," or "boys of trust" were a group of Indigenous males that were trained from a young age to act as killers and torturers against the native workforce. They were often employed in areas where their tribes had long standing hostilities or were traditionally antagonistic.[29] This group was also referred to as the "racionales" or rationals, a part of an imposed hierarchy that divided the “semi-civilized” Natives and those considered non-civilized.[30] The Peruvian Amazon Company outfitted their muchachos with Winchesters, and shot guns.[31][32] The muchachos risked death if they disobeyed.

Muchachos de Confianza at Entre Rios, circa 1912

In judge Romulo Paredes words they "place at the disposal of those chiefs their special instincts, such as sense of direction, scent, their sobriety, and their knowledge of the mountains, in order that nobody might escape their fury." According to Paredes the muchachos were often the authors of fictitious uprisings or similar fictional crimes of rebellion. These lies were encouraged by the fact that they were rewarded for their services.[33][lower-alpha 7] Roger Casement described the system as "Boras Indians murdering Huitotos and vice versa for the pleasure, or supposed profit, of their masters, who in the end turn on these (from a variety of motives) and kill them."[35][lower-alpha 8] Casement was also convinced that the agency at La Chorrera never made an enquiry into the instances of muchachos disappearing.[36][lower-alpha 9] According to Casement, the muchachos de confianza outnumbered the Peruvian Amazon Company employees in the Putumayo by two to one.[31] In certain areas of the Peruvian Amazon Company estate, the management of the enslaved work force collecting rubber was dependent on the Muchachos de Confianza.[lower-alpha 10] There were numerous cases of rebellions perpetrated by muchachos de confianza, however they were all small scale incidents.[lower-alpha 11] Casement believed one of these rebellions in particular was a representative case for the practice of grooming muchachos de confianzas.

“Incidentally, too, it illustrates the depravity entailed by the whole system. 'Chico' was one of the 'civilized' Indians of Abisinia - one of those armed and drilled to obey and execute the orders of the civilisers on the wild, or in other words, defenceless Indians. With what result? He revolts. He becomes 'a bandit', an armed terror 'threatening the lives of white men even',[lower-alpha 12] and so is shot out of hand by a labourer of British birth in the Company's service."[lower-alpha 13]

— Roger Casement, The Amazon Journal of Roger Casement[39]

Correrias

One method for the accumulation and expansion of a native workforce by rubber extracting firms in the Putumayo, were correrias, which can be translated into "forays" or "chasings".[40] Employees of the Peruvian Amazon Company also referred to these raids as "commissions".[41][42] These were essentially hunting parties or slave raids that were sent out with the intention to either kill or capture natives.[43][44][45][lower-alpha 14] Correrias were also sent out in the event of natives running away or as a consequence for a group of natives not bringing in enough rubber.[47] Natives caught on these raids were often put in chains, and then subjected to the cepo on their arrival to a rubber station.[48] The correrias are known to have continued all the way up to 1910, and there were at least two carried out that year across the Caqueta River. One of these expeditions was carried out by Augusto Jímenez and managed to capture twenty one natives as well as three Colombian men.[49] The other one was carried out by Armando Normand, and spent at least twenty one days away from Matanzas, six of which were in Colombian territory across the Caqueta.[50]

Rubber stations

The Peruvian Amazon Company had dozens of “plantations” spread throughout the Putumayo region. Many of these settlements were acquired through exploitative business deals or by force. These settlements were used as centers of control for the Company against the Natives. Slave raids were carried out from the stations to secure an indigenous work force, which would have to deliver the rubber to the nearest company station or else face torture and potentially death. The plantations usually consisted of a centralized settlement surrounded by cleared out forest. Any attack against these stations would have to face open ground with no cover from bullets. In reference to the stations located further in land, Seymour Bell, who was a member of the 1910 investigatory commission, stated that they "were all really 'forts.'" [51]

Depending on the local station, natives could find themselves on walk as far as 60 miles while carrying between 100–165 pounds of rubber. Often, these couriers were given little to no food on their journey and had to scavenge for food along the delivery route.[52] The children and family of these native rubber tappers would often travel together: if not it was likely that those dependents could starve to death.

La Chorrera

La Chorrera was an important settlement along the Igara-Parana River in the Putumayo during the rubber boom. It was situated above a waterfall, which gives the settlement its name. It was initially settled by Colombian rubber exporters but came into the possession of Julio Cesar Arana by 1903. Some of the first reports of the Putumayo genocide originated at La Chorrera in September 1903, regarding the massacre of 25-40 Ocaina Natives. The massacre was instigated by Rafael Larrañaga and Victor Macedo. The Natives were flogged for hours, and later shot then burned.[53] This information was later corroborated by a judge who was sent to investigate the region in 1911.[54][lower-alpha 15] Shortly after this incident Arana bought out the Larrañaga share of La Chorrera and assumed control over the Igara-Parana River.

Sometime between 1903 and 1906, Macedo became the manager for Arana's company at La Chorrera, which operated as a regional headquarters on the Igara-Parana.[55] In 1906 Macedo gave the order to "kill all mutilated Indians at once 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."[56]

By 1907 La Chorrera's agency retained effective control over the land between the Igara-Parana and Caqueta Rivers. The stations of La Sabana, Atenas, Entre Rios, Occidente, Abisinia, Matanzas, La China, Urania, and Ultimo Retiro delivered their rubber to La Chorrera. All of these sections were reported to practice flagellation against the Natives. On a number of occasions Natives were killed from the wounds that came from flogging. The term "Mark of Arana" refers to the scarification of wounds that came from flogging.[57] Starvation was also used as a punishment against the natives, and regarding this Roger Casement stated that "Deliberate starvation was again and again resorted to, but this not where it was desired merely to frighten, but where the intention was to kill. Men and women were kept prisoners in the station stocks until they died of hunger."[58]

The ‘Mark of Arana’ on the back of an indigenous boy

The stations of Abisinia and Matanzas appear the most often in the reports of abuse collected by Walter Ernest Hardenburg. They were both established by Arana's enterprise with the help of Barbadian men around 1904.[59] Many of the Barbadians that were employed by the company were sent on "commissions" or slave raids while employed at these two stations. Both Matanzas and Abisinia were in land stations, which meant long marches for the Natives collecting rubber. Roger Casement referred to them in 1910 as "the two worst stations."[60] Matanzas was situated near the Caqueta River, and was managed by Armando Normand from 1906-1910. According to a 1907 report by Charles C. Eberhardt, who was the American consul in Iquitos, there were approximately five thousand natives at Matanzas, and one thousand six hundred at Abisinia.[61] In 1910, Normand told Roger Casement that he had two fabricos in a year, and his station brought in around 8,500 kilos for each fabrico. That year the collection for Matanzas was done by one hundred twenty men "working" rubber, and they each managed to collect 140 kilos a year. The Abisinia station was situated on a tributary of the Cahuinari river and managed by Abelardo Agüero from 1905-1910. In 1912 it was reported that there were only one hundred seventy natives left at Abisinia.[62] Agüero and Normand were both said to have committed innumerable crimes against the enslaved indigenous population in their district.[63] They were both dismissed from the company in 1910, Agüero was in debt to the company for around £500 or £600,[64] while the company owed Normand around £2,100.[65] Agüero rallied a group of his subordinates [lower-alpha 16] along with his muchachos de confianza and set fire to the native crop fields at Abisinia.[66] They took "a large number of Indians with them" and fled the region.[67] In 1915 Judge Carlos A. Valcárcel implicated Normand with the destruction of the Cadanechajá, Japaja, Cadanache, Coigaro, Rosecomema, Tomecagaro, Aduije, and Tichuina tribes.[68]

Managers like Elías Martinengui, who oversaw Atenas, forced his workers to continue day and night: allowing no time to plant or gather food. Regarding the Atenas plantation, Roger Casement wrote "the whole of the population of this district had been systematically starved to death by Elias Martenengui. Martenengui worked his whole district to death, and gave the Indians no time to plant or find food. They had to work rubber or be killed, and to work and die."[69] Women at Atenas were required to "work" the rubber, which was another factor that contributed to the starvation in that area.[37] In 1910, when Casement visited Atenas, the station was reported to have had 790 rubber "workers" however Alfredo Montt claimed he only had "about 250" and three other Peruvian Amazon Company employees under him.[lower-alpha 17][lower-alpha 18] The Muchachos de Confianza oversaw the collection of rubber, and the station managed to bring in 24 tons of rubber annually.[37][lower-alpha 19]

"The Entre Ríos station is located in the center of a huge clearing of more than 900,000 m2"

The Entre Rios station was managed by Andrés O'Donnell, and was another important station a part of La Chorrera's agency. O'Donnell was first incriminated in the Putumayo genocide by Marcial Gorries, a man who had worked for the Peruvian Amazon Company. In a 1907 letter to Benjamin Saldaña Rocca, Marcial wrote "O’Donnell, who has not killed Indians with his own hands, but who has ordered over five hundred Indians to be killed".[72] The cepo at Entre Rios had twenty-four holes that could restrict limbs.[73] Natives at this station also suffered from starvation, and the journey to deliver rubber for a fabrico resulted in many deaths each year.[74] On top of the journey from Entre Rios to La Chorrera, some of the enslaved natives lived hours away, upwards of 25–30 miles.[74] In 1910, O'Donnell told Casement that he only required two fabricos from his station, and brought in around 16,000 kilos for each of them. However, the Barbadian Frederick Bishop stated this was false, and the rubber Entre Rios brings in is closer to 24,000 kilos every collection period.[75][lower-alpha 20] Bishop stated that he had often seen men carrying 40-45 kilos of rubber down to Puerto Peruano, where the rubber is then taken to La Chorrera.[74][lower-alpha 21] According to the Entre Rios staff list, there were 23 employees stationed there which was "the local force for controlling the life and limb of every Indian in the district."[lower-alpha 22] While on the road to Puerto Peruano, Roger Casement noted, "We passed for fully 2 hours through the once enourmous clearings of the Iguarase Indians. Tizon said they had once been very numerous. There must have been hundreds of them - now none at all. All is desolation."[76]

The stations of Santa Catalina and La Sabana were managed by the Rodriguez brothers between 1906 and 1910. Aurelio Rodriguez managed Santa Catalina while his brother Aristides was in charge of La Sabana.[77] Juan A. Tizon admitted that together, these two were responsible for killing "hundreds of natives."[78] They also received a %50 commission on the rubber brought into their stations.[lower-alpha 23] Barbadian Preston Johnson worked at Santa Catalina for eighteen months, and when asked how many natives he had seen murdered there he could only state "a great many." The majority of these killings were carried out because the slain native had tried to run away. Another factor for these killings was that the natives were not collecting rubber for the company. Johnson also declared that he knew about natives dying from starvation at La Sabana but he did not know if this was also the case at Santa Catalina.[80] At Santa Catalina Aurelio had a special stockade built which was referred to as a "double cepo". One of the parts to this cepo restrained the neck and arms, while the other end of the cepo confined the ankles of an individual. The piece that restricted the ankles was also adjustable, so that it could fit a variety of individuals including children.[49][81] Casement stated "Small boys were often inserted into this receptacle face downwards, and they, as well as grown-up people, women equally with men, were flogged while extended in this posture."[82] A number of mass killings perpetrated by the Rodriguez brothers are reported on in the Hardenburg depositions, specifically by Juan Rosas and Genaro Caporo.[83]

Ultimo Retiro was one of the last important stations along the Igaraparaná River. This station was managed by Alfredo Montt,[lower-alpha 24] and later Augusto Jimenez Seminario. The cepo at Ultimo Retiro was said to have nineteen different holes, which were very small. After a demonstration of this cepo, a native told Roger Casement that many others had been flogged, and starved to death while imprisoned here.[85] Casement later stated that this device "was not intended for a place of detention, but for an instrument of torture."[86] In 1910, there were around 25 tons of rubber delivered to La Chorrera from this station.[87] At its height, Ultimo Retiro had two thousand native "workers" on their books however by 1912 this population had fallen to around two hundred.[88]

Casement weighed the loads that these youths were carrying and estimated their weight at 75 kilos each. The Indians carried them over a distance of 100 km without food being given.

El Encanto

El Encanto was the most important settlement on the Caraparaná river during the rubber boom. Originally, the settlement belonged to a few Colombians referred to as the Calderon brothers. The Calderons lost their property at Encanto to Arana's company, and shortly after Miguel S. Loayza became the regional manager there. An ex-employee named Carlos Soplín, who swore before a notary, believed that the inspector of sections for Encantos "must have flogged over five thousand Indians during the six years he has resided in this region."[89] Soplin also stated that in the span of two and a half months at the Monte Rico section he witnessed the flagellation of three hundred natives. These natives received anywhere from twenty to one hundred and fifty times or two hundred times if the punishment was intended to kill.[90] At Esmeraldas he stated that he was witness to the flogging of over four hundred natives in the span of three and a half months.[90] This included men, women, children and the elderly, six of which were killed from the flogging they received. The plantations of Monte Rico, Argelia, Esperanza, Esmeraldas Indostan, La Florida, and La Sombra delivered their product to El Encanto. Between 1906-1907 there was a drop in population at El Encanto from 2,200, to 1,500 and the explanation provided to the American consul Charles C. Eberhardt stated that smallpox had killed around seven hundred people.[91]

Walter Ernest Hardenburg ventured to the Putumayo in 1907, shortly after the Peruvian Amazon Company was registered. Hardenburg was arrested by a group of gunmen working for Loayza and taken to Encanto where he witnessed the condition of the natives there. There he saw people in various stages of sickness and starvation. "These poor wretches, without remedies, without food, were exposed to the burning rays of the vertical sun and the cold rains and heavy dews of early morning until death released them from their sufferings." Their bodies were then carried and dumped into the Caraparaná river once the natives died. [55]

"An incident of the Putumayo" published in The Putumayo - the devil's paradise

In 1908, Loayza authorized attacks against the remaining Colombian enterprises along the Caraparaná River. These included the settlements of David Serrano as well as Ordoñez and Martínez. Ordoñez owned a station called Remolino, which had a portage trail between the Caraparaná and Napo Rivers established on it.[92][lower-alpha 25] Serrano was an important rubber collector on the river who owed money to the Peruvian Amazon Company branch at El Encanto. This debt was used as an excuse to send a commission to Serrano's house to rob him and intimidate him to leave the region.[93] A second commission was sent sometime after, and they captured Serrano and twenty eight of his men before executing them. According to Hardenburg, "They not only shot them to death, but horribly mutilated their bodies with their machetes and threw them into the river."[94] These Colombian settlements were raided, and then either captured or burned down in 1908.[95] In a letter dated to November 29, 1908, Loayza granted the manager of La Florida authority to assume control over the native work force previously used by Ordoñez and Martínez.[96] The natives at Serrano's settlement were also enslaved by the Peruvian Amazon Company and added to their workforce.[97] There were around one hundred twenty Peruvian soldiers sent from Iquitos to help the Peruvian Amazon Company employees fight against the Colombians. By 1910, eighty of these soldiers had died according to Victor Macedo, mostly around El Encanto.[98][lower-alpha 26]

List of recorded massacres

YearDateLocationDescriptionReported casualtiesReferences
1903August 10AbisiniaAbelardo Agüero imprisoned 50 natives within stocks without giving them food or water. When the natives started dying, they were tied to a pole and shot by Agüero who used them as target practice with his mauser revolver.50[99]
1903September 24La Chorrera25-40 Ocaina natives massacred at La Chorrera when they did not meet the weight quota for rubber. The natives were flogged, burned alive, and then shot. Judge Carlos A. Válcárcel states 25, a report on slavery in Peru by the U.S. state department describes the same event, citing 30 natives. Eyewitness Daniel Collantes stated 40 natives while describing the same massacre.25-40.[100][101]
1903Not clarifiedUltimo RetiroChontadura, Ocainama, and Utiguene were summoned to Ultimo Retiro by José Inocente Fonseca. Hundreds of natives appeared. Inocente Fonseca then grabbed his rifle, and with 6 other employees massacred 150 natives consisting of men, women and children. After shooting, Fonseca and other perptrators of the massacre used machetes against the wounded. The bodies were later burned.150[102]
1904Not clarifiedAbisiniaJoão Baptista Braga, a Brazilian ex-employee of the Peruvian Amazon Company stated that on his arrival at Abisinia, Agüero along with Augusto Jiminez had eight natives tied to a pole and murdered. These natives were previously placed in the cepo and were "barbarously martyrised" before their execution, which was used by Agüero to demonstrate how the prisoners were treated.8[103]
1905MarchNot clarifiedJoão Baptista also described the massacre of 35 natives. João was supposed to kill the captives under orders of Abelardo Agüero, but João refused to do so. Instead, Agüero ordered Jimenez to execute the natives.35[72]
1906JanuarySix hours from the Morelia stationIn response to a native drum sounding the signal for help against the caucheros, Augusto Jimenez ordered the execution of around 30 Andqoue captives at Abisinia."About 30"[104]
1906Not clarifiedAbisiniaAt Abisinia, James Mapp and other Barbadians witnessed "about eight" natives taken to a field one by one, and they were then shot. These executions were ordered by Abelardo Agüero, who had just returned to the station from Iquitos. One of the natives from this group was killed because he was missing a foot, and that limited his mobility.Around 8[lower-alpha 27][105]
1906"Last days of 1906"Lower Caqueta RiverA group of Colombians made an expedition to the lower Caqueta River with the intention of enticing the local natives to extract rubber for them. The Colombian settlement that was in the process of construction was attacked by twenty Peruvian men which were armed with rifles. A group of Peruvian reinforcements led by Armando Normand were sent to help deal with the Colombians. Normand forced the highest ranking Colombian to tell their boss, José de la Paz Gutiérrez, to give up all of the weapons he had. According to Roso España, a Colombian who witnessed the event, "Then, in possession of the arms, they began another butchery. The Peruvians discharged their weapons at the Indians who were constructing the roof of the house. These poor unfortunates, pierced by the bullets, some dead, others wounded, rolled off the roof and fell to the ground." The older women were pushed into canoes that were then directed into the center of the lake, before they were all shot. "What they did with the children was still more barbarous, for they jammed them, head-downwards, into the holes that had been dug to receive the posts that were to support the house." Three days later Normand had the most senior natives from the captured group clubbed to death.At least 25[106][107]
1907"Middle of 1907"MatanzasThree old natives and 2 daughters were killed by Armando Normand: their bodies were eaten by dogs that Normand had trained.5[108]
1907October or November 1907CahuinariA group of fifty men were led on a correria by Arístides Rodríguez in an area referred to as Cahuinari. Genaro Caporo, the eyewitness who gave his testimony regarding this event, stated that one hundred and fifty natives were killed by this group. "These murders were carried out with rifles and machetes." Afterwards the group approached and burned an unknown number of native houses. Caporo's deposition stated that there were at least forty families in these houses.More than 150[109]
1910May, 1910Between the Caqueta River and Morelia13 Natives killed on the road during an expedition to hunt down the Native Bora chief Katenere, who was rebelling against the Company. The description of events is relayed by the Barbadian James Chase, who was on the hunt against Katenere. The "commission" took a number of his supporters and his wife prisoner while Katenere managed to escape when his house was raided. Most of the killings were ordered by company agent Fernand Vasquez on the way back to Morelia, and were carried out by the "muchachos de confianza" accompanying him. On the road and near the approach to Morelia the final three victims were killed, all grown Boras men. Vasquez shot one and ordered Cherey to shoot the other two since they were too weak from hunger to keep up with the group. James Chase reported a total of thirteen Natives killed during this incident.13[110]

After the Peruvian Amazon Company

After the Peruvian Amazon Company was liquidated, Arana and a number of his associates retained property in the region, as well as effective control of the indigenous population.[111] An unknown number of natives were forcefully relocated to other regions of the Amazon where they continued to extract rubber.[112][lower-alpha 28] An Irish missionary named Leo Sambrook was sent to the Putumayo in 1912 with three other men to set up a Franciscan mission. Sambrook noted that the abuses in the area continued, and in 1916 he reported that there was a rebellion at the Atenas rubber station.[lower-alpha 29] This rebellion supposedly consisted of nine hundred men, mostly Boras natives. A month later Sambrook reported that the uprising was put down by Peruvian soldiers.[lower-alpha 30] The Atenas area was recaptured, the houses of natives burned down, and the survivors were rounded up.[113] Before the Peruvian and Colombian border changed in the 1920's, Miguel S. Loayza and his brother Carlos forced the migration of at least 6,719 Putumayo natives into the Ampiyacu region of Peru. According to Miguel's brother, around fifty percent of those natives died due to disease and other factors during the journey.[114][lower-alpha 31] The surviving natives from this group continued to work for the Loayza's until the late 1950's.[115]

Notes

  1. ↑ "All native joy died in these woods when these half-castes imposed themselves upon this primitive people, and, in place of occasional raid and inter-tribal fight, gave them the bullet, the lash, the cepo, the chain gang, and death by hungry, death by blows, death by twenty forms of organinsed murder."[6]
  2. ↑ The Yaguas tribes, which are close to the Putumayo region, were also collecting rubber for Peruvians at Pebas. In 1910 a man named Julian Ruiz claimed the title of "Governor" of Pebas. The captain of the Liberal steamboat told Roger Casement that the Yaguas working for Ruiz were "free", however Casement doubted that was true.[7]
  3. ↑ "In this way the Peruvian Commissioner seeks to excuse his country, laying stress on the term “English company and traders,” when he knows that the only representatives of the English company were its Peruvian directors and managers."[16]
  4. ↑ In 1910, when Roger Casement investigated the Peruvian Amazon Company books in Manaus, he found out that Rey de Castro received a loan of £4,600 from Julio Cesar Arana.[19][18]
  5. ↑ Regarding the atrocities that occurred during the Putumayo genocide, Walter E. Hardenburg stated: "[a]nd all this, let us remember, is done by a gang of human beasts, who, consulting exclusively their own evil interests, have had the audacity to form themselves into an English company and put themselves and their gruesome “possessions” under the protection of the English flag, in order to carry out more conveniently their sanguinary labours in the Putumayo and to inspire confidence here."[24]
  6. ↑ One specific instance from Casement stated "It was clear that there was no intention paying these people, for there was nothing in the Store to do it, and even the pretence of 'feeding' them could scarcely be sustained, seeing the want of food everywhere visible."[27]
  7. ↑ In Casement's words, "The muchachos have been brutalised, and made to behead, and shoot, to flog and outrage. They are only another instance of the hopeless obedience of these people. What the white man orders they are only too prone to execute."[34]
  8. ↑ The quote continues, "And this is called 'civilising' the wild savage Indians."
  9. ↑ "I then asked if they ever enquired what had become of, say, a muchacho, whose name might disappear from the list. He [Tízon] talked a little, but it had evidently never struck him, and it was clear that no enquiry is ever made..."
  10. ↑ This specifically refers to the Atenas rubber station in 1910. There were only three company employees besides the station manager, and the muchachos were sent out to ensure collections were made. The armed force at Atenas were responsible for around two hundred and fifty enslaved rubber collectors.[37] The Occidente rubber station also sent their Muchachos out to gather the rubber tappers when collections were due.[38]
  11. ↑ There are at least two different rebellions instigated by muchachos mentioned in Casement's Amazon Journal.
  12. ↑ "these were Tizon's own words to Barnes and myself"
  13. ↑ The quote continues, "The boy I photoed on Saturday was the muchacho de confianza of Flores, and he, I was told by Donal Francis on Friday, has 'killed plenty of men', although only a lad, and was not yet 'fully civilised!' When later on he 'revolts', who will kill him?
  14. ↑ Benjamin Saldaña Rocca referred to these raids as "wholesale slaughter of Indians."[46]
  15. ↑ A Peruvian Amazon Company employee named Esteban Angulo testified to the judge that a few days after that massacre, fifteen natives from the Aymenes tribe were flogged. Rafael ordered this punishment, which was administered in the presence of the Peruvian garrison. Angulo stated that some of these soldiers participated in the flogging.[54]
  16. ↑ The most notable members of this group are Miguel Flores, Armando Blondel, and Filomeno Vasquez. These men were incriminated in the Putumayo genocide by the Hardenburg and Casement depositions.
  17. ↑ Casement only spent a few hours at Atenas on the 26th of October, 1910.[70]
  18. ↑ Elias Martinengui retired from the Peruvian Amazon Company prior to 1910, and Alfredo Montt assumed his role as manager at Atenas.
  19. ↑ Casement mentioned that the latex at Atenas is processed into thin strips, "like long sausages of a butcher's shop. It is the 'true Putumayo sausage' I am told. As a matter of fact it is. It is the entrails of a people."[71]
  20. ↑ Bishop also noted that there were closer to three fabricos in a year rather than just two.
  21. ↑ The journey from Entre Rios to Puerto Peruano could take seven hours on foot. At Puerto Peruano, the Veloz, a boat operated by the Peruvian Amazon Company, shipped the natives to La Chorrera with their rubber loads, between fifty to sixty of them at a time.
  22. ↑ The quote comes from Roger Casement's 1910 journal.[71]
  23. ↑ In one specific fabrico, Santa Catalina managed to bring in 30,000 kilos of rubber, which added onto the fortune collected by Aristides.[79]
  24. ↑ During Montt's management of Ultimo Retiro, natives were shot, flogged and deliberately starved to death. In Reuben Philips words, "very many Indians were killed and flogged there."[84]
  25. ↑ After the Peruvian Amazon Company captured Remolino, they were in a position to prevent natives from using this portage route to escape the Putumayo area.
  26. ↑ These Peruvian soldiers were Andeans, and were sent to the Putumayo due to the threat of a fictitious Colombian rebellion. The cemetery at La Chorrera contained the burial ground for this group.[98]
  27. ↑ Source says "about eight"
  28. ↑ In 1916, there was a "Agüero y Jiménez" exporting rubber from the Tahuamanu River with eighteen Huitoto families. It may be possible this is Abelardo Agüero and Augusto Jiménez Seminario
  29. ↑ According to the information in The Devil and Mr Casement, the natives rebelled after a forced march of three days to find rubber, for which they received little food. Nine men working for Arana were killed by the natives.
  30. ↑ Some of which were equipped with machine guns.[113]
  31. ↑ Julio Arana also had a role in initiating these forced migrations.[113]

References

  1. 1 2 "Cien años después, la Amazonía recuerda uno de sus episodios más trágicos". BBC News (in Spanish). 12 October 2012. Retrieved 30 July 2021.
  2. ↑ White, Matthew (15 July 2019). "Twentieth Century Atlas - Death Tolls". Necrometrics. Retrieved 30 July 2021.
  3. ↑ Uribe, Simón (2017). Frontier Road: Power, History, and the Everyday State in the Colombian Amazon (1st ed.). Colombia: John Wiley & Sons. pp. 50–52. ISBN 978-1-11910018-8. Retrieved 3 July 2023.
  4. ↑ Hardenburg 1912, p. 295.
  5. ↑ Casement 1997, pp. 145–146.
  6. ↑ Casement 1997, p. 241-242.
  7. ↑ Casement 1997, p. 445-446.
  8. ↑ Chirif, Alberto (2009). imaginario e Imágenes de la época del caucho (illustrated ed.). Putumayo: Amazon Center for Anthropology and Practical Application. pp. 18, 206. ISBN 978-997260827-8. Retrieved 3 July 2023.
  9. ↑ Valcárcel 1915, p. 22.
  10. ↑ Hardenburg 1912, pp. 200=201.
  11. ↑ Hardenburg 1912, p. 182.
  12. ↑ Hardenburg 1912, p. 29,160,181,185.
  13. ↑ Davis, Wade (2017). El río: exploraciones y descubrimientos en la selva amazónica. Grupo Planeta. pp. 283–84.
  14. ↑ "Cien años de la matanza de La Chorrera, Amazonas" [One hundred years since the massacre of La Chorrera, Amazonas]. El Tiempo (in Spanish). 7 October 2012. Retrieved 30 July 2021.
  15. ↑ Goodman 2009, p. 36.
  16. ↑ Hardenburg 1912, p. 43.
  17. ↑ Casement 1997, p. 94.
  18. 1 2 Casement 1997, p. 444.
  19. ↑ Collier 1968, p. 51.
  20. ↑ Casement 1997, p. 444,508.
  21. ↑ Goodman 2009, p. 235.
  22. ↑ En el Putumayo y sus afluentes 1907, p. 95.
  23. ↑ Casement 1997, p. 323.
  24. ↑ Hardenburg 1912, p. 215.
  25. ↑ Goodman 2009, p. 68,105,120.
  26. ↑ Casement 1997, p. 208-209.
  27. ↑ Casement 1997, p. 199.
  28. ↑ Casement 1997, p. 214-215.
  29. ↑ Whiffen, Thomas (1915). The North-West Amazons; Notes of Some Months Spent Among Cannibal Tribes. p. 4.
  30. ↑ Casement 1997, p. 119.
  31. 1 2 Taussig, Michael. Shamanism, Colonialism, and the Wild Man. p. 48.
  32. ↑ Hardenburg 1912, p. 303.
  33. ↑ Department of State 1913, p. 147.
  34. ↑ Casement 1997, p. 311.
  35. ↑ Casement 1997, p. 136.
  36. ↑ Casement 1997, p. 160.
  37. 1 2 3 Casement 1997, p. 320.
  38. ↑ Casement 1997, p. 140.
  39. ↑ Casement 1997, p. 135-136.
  40. ↑ Hardenburg 1912, p. 209,242-243,297.
  41. ↑ Hardenburg 1912, p. 243,251.
  42. ↑ Casement 1997, p. 226.
  43. ↑ Hardenburg 1912, p. 243.
  44. ↑ Casement 1997, p. 13.
  45. ↑ Department of State 1913, p. 369.
  46. ↑ Hardenburg 1912, p. 216.
  47. ↑ Hardenburg 1912, p. 252.
  48. ↑ Hardenburg 1912, p. 243,252.
  49. 1 2 Casement 1997, p. 195.
  50. ↑ Casement 1997, p. 259.
  51. ↑ Casement 1997, p. 173.
  52. ↑ Casement 1997, p. 263,269-270.
  53. ↑ Hardenburg 1912, p. 259.
  54. 1 2 Valcárcel 1915, p. 285.
  55. 1 2 Hardenburg 1912, p. 181.
  56. ↑ Hardenburg 1912, p. 206.
  57. ↑ Hardenburg 1912, p. 180,350.
  58. ↑ Hardenburg 1912, p. 310.
  59. ↑ Casement 1997, p. 146.
  60. ↑ Casement 1997, p. 142.
  61. ↑ Department of State 1913, p. 112.
  62. ↑ Department of State 1913, p. 86.
  63. ↑ Department of State 1913, pp. 219, 265.
  64. ↑ Department of State 1913, p. 218.
  65. ↑ Casement 1997, p. 293.
  66. ↑ Goodman 2009, p. 144.
  67. ↑ Parliamentary Papers: Select Committee on the Putumayo. House of Commons or House of Lords Papers. p. 20.
  68. ↑ Valcárcel 1915, p. 165.
  69. ↑ Goodman, Jordan. "Mr Casement goes to Washington:The Politics of the Putumayo Photographs". Revistas. ABEI Journal. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
  70. ↑ Casement 1997, p. 319-320.
  71. 1 2 Casement 1997, p. 321.
  72. 1 2 Hardenburg 1912, p. 234.
  73. ↑ Casement 1997, p. 230.
  74. 1 2 3 Casement 1997, p. 247.
  75. ↑ Casement 1997, p. 246.
  76. ↑ Casement 1997, p. 332.
  77. ↑ Hardenburg 1912, p. 254-255.
  78. ↑ Casement 1997, p. 424.
  79. ↑ Casement 1997, p. 423.
  80. ↑ Department of State 1913, p. 368.
  81. ↑ Department of State 1913, p. 341.
  82. ↑ Hardenburg 1912, p. 282.
  83. ↑ Hardenburg 1912, p. 243,256.
  84. ↑ Department of State 1913, pp. 390–391.
  85. ↑ Casement 1997, p. 193.
  86. ↑ Casement 1997, p. 194.
  87. ↑ Casement 1997, p. 207.
  88. ↑ Department of State 1913, p. 52.
  89. ↑ Hardenburg 1912, pp. 181, 200, 232.
  90. 1 2 Hardenburg 1912, p. 231.
  91. ↑ Department of State 1913, p. 115.
  92. ↑ Hardenburg 1912, p. 140.
  93. ↑ Hardenburg 1912, p. 148.
  94. ↑ Goodman 2009, p. 35.
  95. ↑ Hardenburg 1912, p. 175.
  96. ↑ Válcárcel 1915, p. 302.
  97. ↑ Hardenburg 1912, p. 202-203.
  98. 1 2 Casement 1997, p. 356.
  99. ↑ Hardenburg 1912, p. 241.
  100. ↑ Válcárcel 1915, p. 287.
  101. ↑ Department of State 1913, p. 145.
  102. ↑ Hardenburg 1912, p. 260.
  103. ↑ Hardenburg 1912, p. 238.
  104. ↑ Department of State 1913, pp. 382–383.
  105. ↑ Department of State 1913, p. 383.
  106. ↑ Hardenburg 1912, p. 222-223.
  107. ↑ Department of State 1913, pp. 350–351.
  108. ↑ Hardenburg 1912, p. 331.
  109. ↑ Hardenburg 1912, p. 254.
  110. ↑ Paternoster, Sidney. The Lords of the Devil's Paradise. pp. 70–74.
  111. ↑ Goodman 2009, p. 259,265.
  112. ↑ Paredes Pando, Oscar (2013). Explotacion del caucho-shiringa Brasil - Bolivia - Peru. Editado e impreso en JL Editores. p. 140.
  113. 1 2 3 Goodman 2009, p. 265.
  114. ↑ Víctor San Román, Jesús (January 1, 1994). Perfiles históricos de la amazonía peruana (PDF). Peru / Colombia: Instituto de Investigaciones de la Amazonía Peruana. pp. 191–92. ISBN 8489295808. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
  115. ↑ Javier Romero Dianderas, Eduardo. Documents, forests and alternative governmental projects in the margins of the state: a case stgudy from Ampiyacu basin, Peruvian Amazonia (PDF). Peru / Colombia: University of Georgia. p. 60. Retrieved 21 July 2023.

Bibliography

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