Extended Case study

This research has been developed through a case study: the Baguazo and Awajun political mobilisations in the Peruvian Northern Amazon for defending their territorial rights against state policies and extractive industries. The aim was to analyse the tensions between the politics of indigenous peoples and the policies implemented by the state regarding extractive activities and indigenous peoples’ rights.

I paid particular attention to the meaning of the Baguazo (see sections 1.1 and 6.2) and its legal and political implications, reason why instead of focusing on the description of the event, I developed a comprehensive analysis by exploring the historical indigenous struggles against state attempts of territorial dispossession and the current conflicts with mining and oil companies which hold concessions provided by the state within the Awajun territory.

I also studied the state response to indigenous social mobilisation and the governmental attempts to implement intercultural policies. I focused on officials in charge of indigenous affairs, social conflicts, environmental issues and development. This multidimensional analysis has helped me to answer the three research questions that inform this thesis:

1. What are the tensions and the nature of the conflict between indigenous peoples’

territorial rights and liberal capitalism (expressed in multiculturalism and economic development)?

2. In what ways can indigenous self-determination and territoriality articulate an alternative to liberal capitalism?

3. What would be the adequate epistemological framework to theorise indigenous politics and legality at present?

The case study method is important in this research because it allows analysis of specific information relating to a relevant case in order to find its connection to other similar cases and to deny dominant assumptions. As asserted by Flyvbjerg (2006), this method proposes a ‘falsification test’ by which if one case does not support a universal proposition, the scientific validity of this proposition must be denied. Thus, with the case study undertaken in this thesis the universal assumptions of Western modernity, liberal capitalism and globalisation regarding the assimilation of indigenous politics are critically assessed.

Specifically, I use the ‘extended case method’ because it emphasises the necessity of a multi-systemic analysis in order to observe the articulations of a specific case and to develop an existing theory (Burawoy, 1998; Miranda, 2009). The existing theory that I develop using this method is the decolonial approach. This has mainly been applied in cultural studies, political philosophy and ethics. I extend this framework to the connection between political theory, political ecology and critical legal theory.

The multi-systemic analysis is relevant for this research in order to understand how the specific case is deeply related to other similar cases (Burawoy, 1998). Thus, to understand fully the Awajun struggles in relation to state policies I analyse the

104 articulations, actual or potential, of the Awajun struggles with other similar cases that share a similar logic, actors and power relations.

Therefore, in order to observe these linkages and understand properly the problem I focused on 3 groups subdivided into 6 subgroups. Group 1 is the ‘articulators of politics’ and includes the Awajun indigenous people and indigenous political organisations. Group 2 incorporates the ‘promoters and executers of policies’, namely, the state and corporations. Group 3 is the ‘providers of support and legitimation’, and is made up of activists and academics. These groups have different roles in the conflicts, so the criterion for organising them is the degree of involvement in the conflicts.

Whereas in groups 1 and 2 there is a direct involvement, in group 3 participation is indirect (it is true that activists can have a high degree of involvement in social conflicts, but in this specific research it was not the case; they were participating indirectly). Thus, the conflict is expressed by the tensions between group 1 and group 2;

whereas group 3 provides external legitimation, criticisms or support to the previous groups.

Group 1 (articulators of politics) a) The Awajun indigenous people

In Peru the state has recognised the existence of 52 indigenous peoples (Official Data Base of the Ministry of Culture, 2014); one of these indigenous peoples is the Awajun or Aguaruna people. The social organisation of indigenous peoples is through peasant communities in the Andes and native communities in the jungle. According to the last official information provided by the state (Allpa, 2003), there are 5818 peasant communities and 1345 native communities. However, in 2009, the Directory of Native Communities of the Ministry of Agriculture recorded near to 1500 native communities and a territorial extension of 10 503 888 hectare titled. In addition, there are 2 799,901 hectare of 5 territorial reserves for indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation (Surrallés, 2009).

According to the Vice Ministry of Intercultural Affairs (Official Data Base, 2014), the census of indigenous communities of the Amazon of 2007 estimated there were 55 366 people self-identified as Awajun, inhabiting native communities and centros poblados⁵ located mainly in the departments of Loreto, Amazonas, San Martin and Cajamarca.

The language of Awajun has the same name and they represent the second most numerous Amazonian indigenous people after the Ashaninkas.

Awajun people are part of the Jivaro ethnic-linguistic family. The Jivaro are made up of the Awajun, Wampis, Shiwiar and Achuar. The last two also live in Ecuador. The Wampis or Huambisa are closer geographically to the Awajun. They have historically made political alliances with the Awajun and also participated in the Baguazo.

According to the last census mentioned above, there is an estimated 10 163 people self-identifying as Wampis.

5 Centros poblados are small villages created by mestizo immigrants and fostered by the state to colonise Amazonian territory. In these centros poblados mestizo and indigenous peoples usually coexist.

105 According to the Vice Ministry of Intercultural Affairs (Official Data Base, 2014) “The Awajun have a strong ethnic self-identification, what allows them to have a major internal social cohesion to establish their position against external influences”.

b) Indigenous political organisations

The most important Amazonian indigenous organisation is the Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Amazon (AIDESEP). AIDESEP is a national indigenous organisation led by a National Directive Council, elected by 9 decentralised offices located in the South, Centre and Northern Amazon; one of these offices is the Regional Organisation of the Indigenous Peoples of Northern Amazon (ORPIAN).

According to AIDESEP information (website, 2014), currently these 9 decentralised offices comprise 65 local indigenous organisations which represent 1500 native communities in which 650 000 indigenous peoples live.

AIDESEP has a very well structured organisation, with national, regional and local offices. I focused on the national organisation in Lima in order to understand how they interact with the state and NGOs, how they defend their independence as an indigenous organisation and their political structure. As AIDESEP leaders say, AIDESEP is like

‘our indigenous state’.

I also focused on regional and local leaders and members of AIDESEP. I interviewed key indigenous actors from ORPIAN and the local indigenous organisation of the CENEPA River: the Organisation for the Development of Frontier Communities of the Cenepa (ODECOFROC). In addition to indigenous peoples in the Amazon and members of indigenous organisations, I also interviewed Awajun in Lima who are not activists but are young professional or university students.

Group 2 (promoters and executors of policies) c) State functionaries:

The state sectors more involved in social conflicts between state, companies and indigenous peoples are the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Energy and Mines, the Vice-Ministry of Intercultural Affairs, the Ombudsman and the Presidency of Ministries Council.

In order to understand the discourse and practice of policy-makers and promoters of policies which are rejected by the previous group, I did interviews and observation in key offices of these sectors. I observed the way in which functionaries interact with indigenous peoples and how they address indigenous questions. I also paid attention to how the state conceives development and the role of indigenous peoples in this process.

d) Mining and Oil companies:

There are two important companies – both of them associated with Canadian companies - located in the province of Condorcanqui, Amazon, whose operations comprise Awajun territories. The mining company Afrodita is located in the Cenepa district, and the oil company Pacific Rubiales, which recently obtained the rights for exploiting the 116 oil block from Maurel et Prom (French capitals), is located in the Nieva district.

106 Both of them maintain very tense relations with the close communities and indigenous political organisations. In the case of Afrodita there are judicial claims on-going, and in the case of Pacific Rubiales, indigenous organisations are claiming the right to be consulted before the operations start.

I did informal interviews with representatives of these companies and other companies involved in socio-environmental conflicts with indigenous peoples. The aims of these interviews were to understand the way companies relate to indigenous peoples and what their views are regarding the right to consultation, territorial indigenous spaces and the way in which extractivism is developed in the Amazon.

Group 3 (providers of support and legitimation) e) Activists:

There are international, national and local human rights and environmental NGOs that support indigenous judicial and political claims. The activist role of some local Church representatives is also important in supporting indigenous claims put forward to the state and companies.

I interviewed and interacted with activists from these NGOs and the Church involved in Awajun political and legal struggles. They helped me to forge relations with Awajun indigenous peoples.

f) Academics:

Academics have had an important role in evaluating the policies and politics related to these conflicts. They also directly or indirectly have argued in favour of or against the governmental policies and the politics of the indigenous movements. I interviewed academics that have deeply analysed the conflicts between indigenous peoples, the state and companies.

107 In most of the cases in which I approached the groups, I combined the methods of participant observation with ethnographic interviews, unstructured interviews or in-depth semi-structured interviews.

Participant observation is a method that encompasses all the fieldwork experience through an active involvement and interactions with the participants in order to obtain a deep understanding of the essential processes of social coexistence (DeWalt and DeWalt, 2011). This method was very useful to grasp the structural conditions and material constraints of indigenous politics and state policies, as well as the aspirations and political imagination of each participant.

Qualitative interviewing explores the shared meanings that people develop in their daily life social interactions (Rubin and Rubin, 1995). Specifically I used ethnographic interviews which sometimes were formulated as unstructured and semi-structured interviews (Sarantakos, 2005). Ethnographic interviews entail the involvement of the observer in the life of the participant, the analysis of the interactions within local social structures and the observation of local processes in connection to external social phenomena (Burawoy, 1998). Unstructured interviews utilise unstructured questionnaires that contain several open-ended questions that can be changed depending on the circumstances (Sarantakos, 2005). Semi-structured interviews are used in cases in which more specific information is needed (Rubin and Rubin, 1995). I also used a specific type of semi-structured interview called ‘in-depth’, which serves to obtain more deep information and knowledge. The information provided usually encompasses personal matters, such as life experiences, values, cultural knowledge and ideology (Johnson, 2002).

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108 In total I did 64 formal interviews: 33 interviews with indigenous peoples, 9 interviews with state officials, 13 interviews with activists, 4 interviews with company representatives, 5 interviews with academics. Apart from these interviews I had many informal interviews, conversations and exchanges with all these actors.

My data were opinions, declarations, political manifestations and mobilisations, legislation, policies, reports and guidelines. I also used official statistics related to the number of indigenous communities, mining and oil concessions and the number of socio-environmental conflicts, and less formal sources of data such as pop culture and media to contextualise interviews and observations within macro-structures.

5.2.3. Interviews with indigenous peoples, indigenous organisations and