Shaman Wilson showing plants used in preparing a
'pusanga' in Peru, September, 2009.(Photo: Howard G Charing)
Darrin Mortenson
Iquitos, Peru - It's been more than one month since Peru's government
sent investigators to the Amazon to probe the brutal murders and
mutilation of at least 14 shamans, traditional healers or medicos, of the indigenous Shawi people of Peru's northern border region near Ecuador.
Since then, the government has remained mum and, so far, has made no arrests, or at least has not made any known. Early reports focused on the Evangelical Christian mayor of the river port town of Balsapuerto, citing officials who accused him of instigating a fanatical religious purge.
But Alberto Pizango, Peru's top indigenous leader and president of the country's most powerful indigenous organization, the Interethnic Development Association of the Peruvian Rainforest (known by its Spanish acronym, AIDESEP) paints a more complex picture of the case, blaming cash and pressure from legal and illegal industries in the Amazon who poach natural resources from indigenous lands.
"What is happening now in my community is organized crime," said Pizango, himself a Shawi medico who studied for seven years under a master shaman.
"This work, I would say, is done in a very subtle way by the extractive industries," Pizango said, naming the timber and oil industries as well as those involved in producing illegal drugs.
"Divide and conquer," he said. "That is exactly what is happening here."
Since then, the government has remained mum and, so far, has made no arrests, or at least has not made any known. Early reports focused on the Evangelical Christian mayor of the river port town of Balsapuerto, citing officials who accused him of instigating a fanatical religious purge.
But Alberto Pizango, Peru's top indigenous leader and president of the country's most powerful indigenous organization, the Interethnic Development Association of the Peruvian Rainforest (known by its Spanish acronym, AIDESEP) paints a more complex picture of the case, blaming cash and pressure from legal and illegal industries in the Amazon who poach natural resources from indigenous lands.
"What is happening now in my community is organized crime," said Pizango, himself a Shawi medico who studied for seven years under a master shaman.
"This work, I would say, is done in a very subtle way by the extractive industries," Pizango said, naming the timber and oil industries as well as those involved in producing illegal drugs.
"Divide and conquer," he said. "That is exactly what is happening here."
Masking Ambition
Pizango explained that Shawi tradition used to allow certain shamans,
often ones who had quit their apprenticeships and used their powers for
"bad things," to be killed or banished by others in the community. Now,
he said, a "bad interpretation" of that tradition has been used to cover
up corruption and greed.
"The criminals accuse someone, [they say], "He is a brujo! He is evil! He was killed because he was evil!" Pizango said. "That was ancestral justice," he said. "But now it is just organized crime."
Original reports cited public prosecutors from the nearby port of Yurimaguas who specifically named Balsapuerto mayor Alfredo Torres and his brother Augusto, also known locally as a matabrujos or "witch killer," as suspects in at least some of the murders. One early report said at least seven additional shamans were still missing from Shawi territory and listed as dead by local officials of the Catholic Church - making it more than 20 shamans killed in the region in less than two years.
"The criminals accuse someone, [they say], "He is a brujo! He is evil! He was killed because he was evil!" Pizango said. "That was ancestral justice," he said. "But now it is just organized crime."
Original reports cited public prosecutors from the nearby port of Yurimaguas who specifically named Balsapuerto mayor Alfredo Torres and his brother Augusto, also known locally as a matabrujos or "witch killer," as suspects in at least some of the murders. One early report said at least seven additional shamans were still missing from Shawi territory and listed as dead by local officials of the Catholic Church - making it more than 20 shamans killed in the region in less than two years.
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