My Kent Essay on "Why is there persecution of the Indigenous Andeans?"

Some people have asked to see my essay so give it a read and see what you think


Why is there persecution of the indigenous Andean people?

The indigenous Andean people are persecuted against by the government and private foreign corporations, primarily in an attempt to acquire the land which they have farmed for centuries. Indigenous Andeans are found in Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina and Ecuador, with the main Andean inhabitants being of the Quechuan and Aymara tribes. These indigenous communities are robbed of their land, robbed of their right to an education and even robbed of the right to have children through the means of forced sterilization. The indigenous communities are vulnerable and easy targets for the governments of the countries in which they live in because they lack the power necessary to fight the governments or the worldwide corporations who take their land. Thus, indigenous communities are forced out of their homes and onto the streets, in turn leading them to have to beg for money or food to stay alive as they lack the necessary education to gain a job within the city. This, in essence, means that indigenous people are being forced out of their homes into relative squalor in towns and cities.

Andeans were and still are persecuted because they are communities the government feel they have least control over. Many of these communities close themselves off from other inhabitants of the country by not providing injections into the economy and keeping resources within their own community. Indigenous communities are essentially subsistence farmers who rely on their land for their livelihood, and so are threatened when the government want the land. The indigenous communities in most parts of Peru and Bolivia have rightfully owned the land since Inca times, some 500 years ago. One way in which the Peruvian government has been trying to control its indigenous communities is through the means of Forced Sterilization, a programme issued by the then president Alberto Fujimori. During the years of 1996 and 2000, 272,028 women, mainly from indigenous communities, were forced to undergo the procedure called voluntary surgical contraception. Fujimori justified Forced sterilization by implying that his aim was to liberate men and women from the burden of poverty and large families, but in fact it was just another form of control. Aimed at men and woman who fell into the low income sector, which just happened to be the indigenous communities, Fujimori assumed that by ‘sterilizing’ the indigenous Andean inhabitants numbered the days of the pure indigenous communities. With less people inhabiting the government-desired land the less protest there would be upon taking. This is a strong violation of human rights and can be compared to the sterilization methods used within Nazi Germany in the Second World War; many would say it is reminiscent of an Orwellian novel rather than what happened in the 20th century.

The indigenous communities are persecuted further as they are preventing the countries in which they inhabit to lose the label of a third world country and become powerful and influential economy. In order to gain the desired label of a powerful economy, countries need both foreign investment and international trade. Latin American countries have an advantage which many of the most powerful countries do not have; they have the land and climate to farm coffee beans, tobacco and cotton and mine some of the world’s most sought after goods including gold. Power hungry corporations from the richer countries such as America and Korea are ready to exploit this fact, and offer money to the country which the indigenous communities cannot. The greed of the countries which are home to the indigenous Andeans allows such corporations to destroy the very land upon which these communities rely on. In April 2009 an agreement between the multinational Korean resource corporation and a Bolivian state owned company to exploit new copper deposits though an open pit mining operation for a period of 30 years without the consent of the Aymara people whom the land belongs to. Livitaca in the south of Peru is the hometown of the cook of Azul Wasi Orphanage, in Cusco; she has explained how recently her town has been devastated by the effects of mining. Livitaca is an extremely rural town 8 hours from Cusco, where Quechua (not Spanish) is the main language spoken and people rely on potatoes harvests for their livelihood. Currently the town is occupied by what she refers to as rich ‘gringos’ (a Quechuan term for foreigner) from the United States, who are mining and searching for gold. She goes on to reveal that no one in her town was informed about the mining prior to the diggers and machines arrival, and that the mining work has contaminated the water they use to drink, cook their food and farm their crops. This has affected the quantity of potatoes harvested, thus directly affecting local incomes. For every one ounce of gold mined, 79 tons of mine waste is generated; with mines lasting on average of ten to fifteen years the damage incurred by the land, the communities and the people is huge. The 26th June 2010 saw over 500 tons of hazardous waste from the Caudalopsa mine sent into the Peruvian Escalera river, and its tributaries, after a dam collapsed near the river. Thus devastating over 40 communities who rely on the river, it left the waters heavily polluted and had a huge effect on the livelihoods of at least 500 families. This is becoming more and more frequent all over the countries home to the indigenous Andean communities where there are increasing levels of mining development.

In conclusion, there is persecution of indigenous Andeans as in the eyes of the governments they are essentially keeping their countries third world. There is not a lot of money to be gained in subsistence farming and this does not offer injections into the economy. On the other hand the Andean land is fruitful in metals and in gold, a lot of money can be made through the means of mining and the governments are more than aware of this. The livelihood and health of the indigenous communities in the eyes of the power hungry countries is deemed a fair price to pay in order to make the transition from a third world country to a powerful economy. If Brazil can do it, why can’t Peru, Bolivia or Ecuador? On the other hand there is hope for these indigenous communities; they are getting recognition from the United Nations and the United States of their hardships and the environmental effects of mining. With regards to the Caudalopsa Chica mining company which I mentioned earlier in the essay, they were fined 36 million soles (US$12.7mn) by the National Water Authority of Peru for the environmental damage caused by the collapse of the damn. There is still hope yet for the indigenous Andean communities, they are starting to form organizations which in turn is providing them with a voice, soon there will be no choice but to listen to their pleas and we can only hope atrocities such as those seen in Peru with regards to forced sterilization, robbing and contamination of land, are not suffered by the next generation of indigenous Andeans.

Word Count: 1,189
Bibliography:
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/PERU:+VICTIMS+OF+FORCED+STERILIZATIONS+FIGHT+FOR+JUSTICE.-a0219684320

http://www.indianlaw.org/content/mining-industry-south-america-threatens-indigenous-communities

http://www.indianlaw.org/content/mining-industry-south-america-threatens-indigenous-communities

http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page68?oid=108309&sn=Detail