by: Delisa Morris

News Reporter – South America

Recently, rare video footage has been released by the Brazil Indigenous Affairs department.  In the video you can see first contact being made with indigenous people at the Brazil/Peru border.  These indigenous people are from the Panoan linguistic group and in the video you can see their hesitation at making contact with people from the department.

To sweeten the deal the Brazil Indigenous Affairs department offered the Panoan linguistic group bananas for making the connection.  The contact was made in northern Brazil, along the banks and inside of the Envira River, in the western Acre state of Brazil, close to the Peruvian border.

Another indigenous people, the Ashaninka tribe, laid clothes along the edges of the forest, near the Panoan settlement, in June, as a gesture of friendship.  After, the Panoan’s tried to make contact with the Ashaninka tribe by visiting their settlement.  This was the first time in several decades that an Amazonian Indian tribe visited a settled population without first being contacted or invited.  The Ashaninka often help FUNAI by giving them hints about the whereabouts of other tribes.

Later, Brazil’s National Indian Foundation (FUNAI), travelled to the area with health specialists and interpreters and filmed the second contact on June 29.

The footage from the first encounter shows one of the interpreters handing over a few bunches of bananas to the natives before they cautiously retreated.

There was concern early in July when news spread about the tribe making contact with a village, because some natives were showing flu like symptoms before they returned to their forrest home.  According to FUNAI, at least seven people were suffering from flu like symptoms and a virus normally found in outside populations.  This alarmed many campaigners to tune into the rights of indigenous peoples.

It is unknown if the members of the tribe were sick and refused medical treatment.  This raises concern that the natives will spread disease when they return to their home.

Many Brazilian experts believe that the Indians were forced to cross from Peru into Brazil because of illegal loggers and drug smugglers taking over their land.

Currently Peru has two reserves where there are un-contacted tribes including the Murunahua Indigenous Reserve.

According to the 2013 census in Brazil, there are 810,000 indigenous people in the country and 560 of them have been murdered in the past decade.  There are at least 18 tribes spread throughout the amazon region, with no contact to the outside world.

Please view the video of the first contact with the Panoan linguistic group below.  Video courtesy of BBC News.

For more information, please see:

The Independent – Amazonian Indian Tribe Filmed Making Contact with Brazil Village in Rare Video Footage – 31 July 2014

The Washington Post – Indigenous People in Brazil Contacted for the First Time – with Bananas – 31 July 2014

The Guardian – Amazon Tribe Makes First Contact with Outside World – 1 August 2014

BBC News – Face to Face with Isolated Amazon Tribe in Brazil – 31 July 2014

 

 

By Mridula Tirumalasetti

Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

SANTIAGO, Chile—Chile wants to deny Bolivia access to the Pacific Ocean. Chilean President Michelle Bachelet stated on Monday that the country plans to challenge the jurisdiction that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in Hague has in the matter.  Bachelet stated, “Our national interest is at stake and we will defend it with all the strength, determination, and sobriety that is necessary.”

The territorial dispute between Bolivia and Chile is longstanding and historical. Bolivia filed a lawsuit against Chile in April 2013, in which the country attempted to regain access to the sea. On April 15, 2014, the Bolivian government filed a written statement which gave Chile three months to file an objection to the ICJ jurisdiction in this case.

Bolivia has asked the ICJ to grant it territory that it lost in the War of the Pacific (1879-1883), even though it signed the Treaty of Peace and Friendship with Chile in 1904. The treaty established the two countries’ current borders, but Bolivia argues it was coerced into accepting the agreement. The Bolivian government estimates approximately 400 kilometers of coastline and 129,000 square kilometers of land were lost due to the War of the Pacific. Chile and Bolivia have had tense relations ever since.

However, the Chilean government insists the two countries signed the Treaty of Peace and Friendship, and thus there is nothing more to settle.

In her address on Monday, Bachelet also stated the treaty had “been respected and implemented by both States for over a century, and Chile has granted Bolivia the widest possible right of commercial transit across its territory and ports on the Pacific.” She continued that Chile’s foreign policy was guided by “the unyielding defense of our territorial integrity and our national interests, which coincide with essential principles of international law and relations among states, including the inviolability of treaties and the stability of borders.”

Because Bolivia is a landlocked country, gaining access to ocean ports could help boost their economy. Moreover, it could help end the dispute with Chile and boost economic ties between the two States.

Bachelet’s decision received widespread support in Chile, and the dispute between the two nations has sparked nationalist sentiments. Julio Carrion, who a a political scientist specializing in the Andean region at the University of Delaware argues, “The strong anti-Chilean sentiment in Bolivia makes it risky for any government to formally give up. The best one can hope for is a gradual, silent fading away of the issue, which is unlikely to happen with the current administration.”

For more information, please see:

PanAm Post– Bachelet Rejects The Hague’s Authority in Bolivia’s Sea-Access Case–8 July 2014

El Pais–Chile to contest UN court’s jurisdiction in dispute with Bolivia over sea access–8 July 2014

The Wall Street Journal–Bolivia’s Tack Toward Pacific Faces Chilean Headwind— 8 July 2014

The Santiago Times–Bachelet: Chile will challenge ICJ jurisdiction on Bolivia case–8 July 2014

By Mridula Tirumalasetti

Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

LA PAZ, Bolivia–Bolivia has legalized children who are as young as 10 years old to be employed. This is the lowest minimum working age in the world.

Lawmakers in Bolivia approved legislation earlier this month, and on July 17, Vice President Alvaro Garcia signed it into law. The law allows 10 year olds to work so long as they are under parental supervision and still attend school. Children who are 12 years old are allowed to work under contract, and they must also attend school.

While the International Labor Organization (ILO) sets the minimum working age at 15, it allows for the minimum age for children in developing countries to be set at 14.  The ILO is investigating to see whether the law violates international regulations on child labor.

Proponents of the new law have argued that children who are younger than 14 years old need to work in order to help support their families. “Extreme poverty is one of the causes, not the main one, of child labor, said Deputy Javier Zavaleta, who is a co-sponsor of the bill. He added, “So our goal is to eliminate child labor by 2020. While it is ambitious, it is possible.”

Another argument for lowering the minimum work age is articulated by Senator Adolfo Mendoza. He stated, “Child labor already exists in Bolivia, and it’s difficult to fight it. Rather than persecute it, we want to protect the rights and guarantee the labor security of the children. “

However, human rights activists see it a different way. According to Jo Becker, who is the children’s-rights advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, “Child labor perpetuates the cycle of poverty…Poor families often send their children to work out of desperation, but these children miss out on schooling and are more likely to end up in a lifetime of low-wage work.” Her suggestion is for the Bolivian government to “invest in policies and programs to end child labor, not support it.”

Bolivia has made limited efforts to invest in ways to help get families out of poverty by paying $28 a year to families who send their children to school, which is essentially a per-child subsidy. However, recent studies show that one in three Bolivian children do not attend school. Moreover, statistics show that an estimated 1 million children in Bolivia work in textiles, on farms, as street vendors, and even coca leaf pickers.

For more information, please see:

Time–Bolivia to Allow Children to Legally Work at Just 10 Years Old–4 July 2014

The Telegraph–Bolivia becomes first nation to legalise child labour from age 10–19 July 2014

BBC News–Bolivia law allows “self employed children” aged 10 to work–17 July 2014

Al Jazeera America– Bolivia makes child labor legal from age 10–18 July 2014

 

by Mridula Tirumalasetti

Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

LA PAZ, Bolivia—The U.N. reported that the coca cultivation in Bolivia has declined by nine percent from 2012 to 2013, which is the lowest it has been in 12 years. Bolivia is one of the world’s biggest cocaine producers, third after Peru and Colombia.

In 1961, the U.N. Convention on Narcotic Drugs, which is the U.N.’s main anti-narcotics treaty, banned the coca leaf, as well as drugs produced from the cocoa leaf, including cocaine, heroin, opium, and morphine. In 2012, Bolivia withdrew from the Convention in order to protest the criminalization of chewing coca leaves. After Bolivia withdrew from the Convention, the U.N. granted Bolivia a special dispensation in which it recognized chewing coca leaves as a traditional, legal practice. As a result, Bolivia was re-admitted into the Convention.

Chewing coca leaves has been a long- standing tradition in Bolivia. It is typically chewed as a source of energy or as an antidote to altitude sickness, and can be consumed as tea and used in religious ceremonies. Moreover, the leaf is an important source of income.

Bolivia’s President Evo Morales, a former coca farmer, has defended the practice and has called it an “ancestral rite” for tea, sweets, and medicines. On June 13 of this year, Morales even presented U.N. Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon with a cake made with coca leaves for his 70th birthday. Ban Ki-moon was in Bolivia during that time in order to discuss ways to reduce poverty.

 

However, Bolivia has made efforts to cut back on cultivation areas. A joint survey by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime and the Bolivian government reported that about 23,000 hectares were used last year for coca bush cultivation as opposed to the 25,300 hectares used in 2012. The government set a goal of reducing cultivation areas to 20,000 hectares by 2015, as part of a strategy to reduce surplus and fight in the war on drug trafficking.

“This decline confirms a downward trend over the last three years, during which period coca cultivation dropped by 26 percent,” said Antonino De Leo, a representative from the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime. He continued, “In 2013, Bolivia recorded the lowest area under coca cultivation since 2002.”

For more information, please see:

Yahoo News–Bolivian president gives UN chief coca birthday cake–13 June 2014

Reuters–Coca cultivation in Bolivia falls to 11 year low–23 June 2014

Fox News–UN drug agency says coca acreage in Bolivia has dropped to lowest level in dozen years–23 June 2014

Global Post–Bolivian coca cultivation dropped 9% in 2013–23 June 2014