{"id":665,"date":"2019-04-23T17:35:00","date_gmt":"2019-04-23T17:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tierra.jerrejerre.com\/es\/?p=665"},"modified":"2021-05-13T21:34:32","modified_gmt":"2021-05-13T21:34:32","slug":"miedo-y-olvido-en-saweto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tierraderesistentes.com\/en\/2019\/04\/23\/miedo-y-olvido-en-saweto\/","title":{"rendered":"Fear and neglect in Saweto"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Since the murder of the environmental leader Edwin Chota and three chiefs of the Alto Tamayo-Saweto community in Pucallpa by illegal loggers, the women of this Ash\u00e1ninka village on the border between Peru and Brazil have been defending the forest. They are standing up to organized crime, as the men are afraid of being murdered like their companions. The Peruvian government offers scant protection, and has failed to improve the infrastructure and carry out the social projects scheduled to begin in 2015.\n\nFive years after the horror that swept Saweto, Convoca.pe travelled to this Amazonian village in the Ucayali region, to learn about these women\u2019s struggle and the constant danger that they face to defend the last trees on the border.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Survivors<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow long did it take you to reach Pucallpa (the capital of Ucayali)?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThree days (\u2026) We traveled day and night (\u2026) without rest in a peque-peque<\/em> (motorized canoe),\u201d related Julia P\u00e9rez, 42 years old, standing barefoot at the corner of the Saweto Communal House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was nighttime. Wasn\u2019t it dangerous?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo, we were not afraid. There were four of us: Ergilia, her daughter, the boatman and I.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDid you stop to eat during the journey?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNot once. Later, we were helped to get some food.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the widows on that journey was pregnant. Who was that?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat was me. I was seven months pregnant at the time. My son\u2019s father died while I was expecting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd how did you travel to Pucallpa?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe found a way; what else could we do? Where there\u2019s a will there\u2019s a way. Nothing could stop me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat name did you give to your son?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEdwin.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAfter his father?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a child in her womb and filled with fear, Julia P\u00e9rez traveled down the river for three days from Saweto to the city of Pucallpa after learning that her husband Edwin Chota and three other community leaders had been murdered.<\/strong> Julia still remembers the scream of one survivor of that horrific incident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey have killed Chota, they have killed our chief!\u201d shouted Jaime Ar\u00e9valo, spokesperson for Alto Tamaya-Saweto, at around 6pm on September 5th<\/sup> 2014. He and his wife Hilda Cushimba were out of breath when they rushed in to notify the community that Edwin Chota, Jaime Ar\u00e9valo, Leoncio Quintisima and Francisco Pinedo had been murdered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"This
Julia P\u00e9rez with her children and new partner. Photo: Anthony Quispe \/ Convoca.pe<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Estefan\u00eda Ar\u00e9valo, daughter of Hilda and Jaime, had to repeat the news to the community, because her father \u201cwas nervous; he could not walk,\u201d she remembers. He was a devastated man, and she had to bear the weight of the story in his place. She related to the widows the dreadful scene that her parents discovered in a gully eight hours away on the road to Apiwtxa, Saweto\u2019s twin community in Acre, Brazil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hilda Cushimba told the prosecutor that she was carrying her baby in her arms when her husband Jaime Ar\u00e9valo described the scene on the slope: the bones lying close to the Putaya river with vultures gnawing the clothes, boots and bags floating in a puddle of water. Horrified, they decided to return to Saweto on a different route to that taken by the four murdered leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy in-laws (…) caught sight of a corpse, but did not recognize who it was or the clothes that they were wearing. They were deeply alarmed, and returned immediately to the community\u201d<\/p>Alex R\u00edos<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy in-laws (…) caught sight of a corpse, but did not recognize who it was or the clothes that they were wearing. They were deeply alarmed, and returned immediately to the community,\u201d Alex R\u00edos, son-in-law of Jaime Ar\u00e9valo, related in his testimony to the Ucayali Prosecutor. He told the authorities that he had accompanied his in-laws to the native community of Apiwtxa on August 29th<\/sup> 2014, because they were due to participate in an assembly in that Brazilian district to coordinate the defense of the forest.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jorge Ar\u00e9valo had arrived early at the meeting in Apiwtxa and, retracing the same route to determine what had happened to the other community leaders, he found the hideous scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Estefan\u00eda Ar\u00e9valo described what her father saw to the other community families, the fear started to spread. The circumstances of the murders, coming on the heels of the death threats, pointed to the illegal loggers near to Saweto<\/span> as the likely perpetrators. The families began to flee to Apiwtxa, in Brazil, or Pucallpa, in Peru. Diana R\u00edos, the daughter of another of the murdered leaders and former partner of Chota, mentioned that Alex R\u00edos, Ar\u00e9valo\u2019s son-in-law, never returned to the village \u201cout of fear.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The majority of the village\u2019s men preferred to take a back seat, out of fear of being the next victims.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Today there are 29 families left in Saweto, of which 20 live permanently in the Ash\u00e1ninka community. <\/strong>The others come and go to other places of work or family commitments, explains Karen Shawiri, the 28-year-old current head of the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the murder of the four leaders, the women led Saweto\u2019s struggle against the wood trafficking. <\/strong>The majority of the village\u2019s men preferred to take a back seat, out of fear of being the next victims. As a result, following the tragedy, Ergilia Rengifo L\u00f3pez, widow of the slain Jorge R\u00edos, became the first woman to be elected chief of the Ash\u00e1ninka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n