Peruvian villagers fear eviction in Amazon land conflict

Published: 2008-04-16

BARRANQUITA, Peru (CNS) -- The knock at Father Mario Bartolini's door came a little after 8 p.m. April 10. On the porch stood Robert Romero Rios, his face creased with worry and his rubber boots caked with mud. The previous afternoon, 10 armed guards had arrived in San Juan de Pacchilla, the tiny village where Romero's family and more than 50 others have lived for more than a generation, in a clearing hacked out of the tropical forest. "They told me to get out -- that the land belonged to them," he told the Italian-born Passionist priest. Romero said he replied that the land had been surveyed and the villagers had papers showing that land titles were being prepared. Eventually the guards left. On the morning of April 10, however, about 15 workers showed up with a tractor, wagon and surveying equipment. They told Romero, who heads an association of community members, that they were preparing the way for contractors hired by a company called Agricola de Caynarachi SA, which plans to turn the land into a palm oil plantation. Regional government officials say the land deal was not legal and is not yet final, but the company already has built a road into the property and is clearing forest and pressuring small farmers, most of whom lack official land titles, to leave.

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