Public statement by Forest Peoples Programme on smear and intimidation campaign in Ucayali, Peru

9.11.22

Forest Peoples Programme (FPP) is concerned about a growing, well-funded and coordinated smear and intimidation campaign in Ucayali, in the Peruvian Amazon, involving regional media, lawyers and local "volunteers", aimed at silencing Indigenous leaders, human rights defenders, Indigenous and human rights organisations, as a result of their work to defend the ancestral territory of the Shipibo-Konibo community of Santa Clara de Uchunya against land trafficking, massive deforestation and the expansion of oil palm monoculture plantations, in particular the plantations of the Ocho Sur group, which operate with apparent impunity despite not having the corresponding environmental licence.

We strongly reject the false claims made about FPP and our Peruvian allies by journalist Lino Campos in his daily programmes on Ribereña Pucallpa from 18 October 2022, as part of a "campaign" calling for the dismissal of Judge Liz Ivonne Torres Díaz, the head of the Permanent Civil Court of Campoverde, for having issued a precautionary measure recognising the defender Carlos Hoyos Soria as head of the community, due to irregularities found in the elections of the communal board of directors in January 2022, where Wilson Barbaran was supposedly elected as head of the community.

This is happening in a context where an important part of the community of Santa Clara de Uchunya considers that Wilson Barbaran does not represent them and they do not agree with his decision to ally himself with the oil palm company Ocho Sur, whose plantation was installed following the massive deforestation of the community's traditional forests. They also oppose the legal actions and formal communications that Mr. Barbaran has been making together with at least three lawyers to stop or withdraw the community from several legal processes to demand respect for their rights and the protection of their territory following complaints that various community members have been making since at least 2015. The source of the funds to pay these lawyers is unknown and raises questions, but community members confirm that it is not from the community's own funds. At the same time, the lawyer and human rights defender Linda Vigo has been facing serious criminalisation attempts by the Department for the Laundering of Assets from Common Crimes (DIVILA DPC.D2) of the Peruvian National Police and the Ocho Sur group for her work in the legal defence of the community, as well as intimidation and threats against Carlos Hoyos.

We reject that journalists, instead of fulfilling their obligation of journalistic objectivity and impartiality, feed a hostile environment for the community members of Santa Clara de Uchunya, the human rights lawyer Linda Vigo and human rights organisations, and try to weaken the independence of the judiciary in the region of Ucayali. Both Ribereña Pucallpa and Gaceta Ucayalina, another media outlet that has participated in this campaign, carry advertising allegedly paid for by Ocho Sur.

We regret that these Ucayali media outlets have not listened to the voices of the community members and Indigenous organisations - at local, regional and national levels - who have repeatedly warned about "the acts of manipulation and bad faith of the company Ocho Sur P SAC that seek to generate division within the Santa Clara de Uchunya community, threatening the organic structure and good relations between their Indigenous organisations...”.[i] Nor have they informed the public of Ucayali about the fact that one of Ocho Sur's international buyers - Bunge Loders Croklaan of the Netherlands - has already blocked the company from its oil palm supply chain as a result of these legitimate complaints, or that another international buyer, Louis Dreyfus Company, is reviewing the complaints made against the company for human rights violations.

FPP has been supporting the Indigenous movement in Ucayali in their struggles for the protection and legal security of their traditional lands and livelihoods since the late 1990s. We have also monitored and documented the causes driving the dispossession of these lands, deforestation and the increase in attacks and violence against human rights defenders over the years. We recall that, in his visit to that region in 2020, the then UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders, Michel Forst, warned of "a context marked by corruption, land trafficking and threats against local villages." The narratives of this smear campaign are typical of the main narratives of smear campaigns against land defenders in Latin America. We consider them to be part of a strategy that aims to silence or undermine the credibility of human rights defenders, to repress legitimate social protest, and to intimidate, divide and control Indigenous communities and break their links with Indigenous organisations, which have historically been at the forefront of the defence of their rights and collective territories, as well as the international community, of which we are a part.

From FPP we reaffirm our commitment to the forest peoples who are fighting for the respect of their fundamental rights, such as the control and protection of their traditional lands and the exercise of their self-determination, especially Santa Clara de Uchunya, which is seeking to recover its territory taken years ago by the Ocho Sur group, a position which they ratified in an agreement taken on 24-25 October of this year.

Read the annex with the public allegations and the responses from FPP, available on our website (in Spanish).

[i] Ver Resolución del Consejo de Coordinación Ampliada de la Organización Regional AIDESEP Ucayali - ORAU, firmada por 13 organizaciones indígenas de la Amazonia peruana el 16 de mayo de 2022: https://www.facebook.com/OrauOficial/posts/pfbid09CDWDHC7TjYvmLaGCBC7PuMSKUwaw8U1wbhXakAGkosPPLE1NBpMmeqNcP99V24El Ver también las dos cartas abiertas de AIDESEP de junio y julio de 2022: http://www.aidesep.org.pe/noticias/carta-abierta-aidesep-exige-acciones-urgentes-al-estado-peruano-los-compradores y http://aidesep.org.pe/noticias/carta-de-aidesep-la-opinion-publica-sobre-comunicacion-enviada-por-el-grupo-empresarial  Ver también el Acta de Acuerdo de comuneros y comuneras de la Comunidad Nativa de Santa Clara de Uchunya, del 25 de octubre de 2022: https://www.forestpeoples.org/sites/default/files/documents/SCDU%20two%20pages.pdf