Indigenous organization slams uncontacted tribes meeting

Yaminahua girl, Yurua River, Peru.
© David Hill/Survival

Peru’s national indigenous organisation, AIDESEP, has slammed a recent government meeting about new uncontacted tribes’ reserves.

Despite receiving an invitation to the meeting, AIDESEP’s president, Alberto Pizango Chota, was barred from attending. ‘I received a letter and thought I was going to participate. We’re the ones who know about indigenous peoples’ rights,’ said Pizango Chota.

One of the outcomes of the meeting was to create a ‘Multisector Commission’ on uncontacted tribes in which only one indigenous representative is permitted to sit. AIDESEP called this decision a ‘mockery.’

Another outcome of the meeting was to ‘accept the proposals for the creation of new reserves’ for uncontacted tribes, but not adopt any specific measures to actually create them. AIDESEP called this a ‘dirty trick’. The proposals for the reserves were first made to the government years ago.

The meeting was coordinated by Peru’s indigenous affairs department, INDEPA, and held last week in Iquitos, a city in northern Peru. All together, the five new reserves would total more than 4 million hectares.