Promise to indigenous tribe in Lima may be broken

World Today

More than 200 Shipibo-Konibo tribe families used to live exclusively in Peru’s Amazon rainforest. They now live in downtown Lima. The indigenous community fears it could lose its new home with the appearance of the city’s new mayor.

CCTV America’s Dan Collyns filed this report from Lima.

Highlights:

  • Dozens of Shipibo-Konibos took their protest to the door of Lima’s town hall.
  • The tribe fears the new mayor won’t respect his predecessor’s promise to relocate them as their homes are bulldozed to make way for a new infrastructure project. The deputy mayor said talks had begun.
  • The tribe currently lives in a slum built on a landfill, where it continues to make its traditional arts and crafts. The children learn both Spanish and their native Shipibo at a special school.
  • Two hundred and twenty six families wait to be relocated to new homes that will have the basic services they currently lack.
  • A fraction of the $74 million fund for the Rio Verde infrastructure project was used to buy the new land for their relocation, but not a single home has yet been built.
  • Indigenous communities have rights under international law.