Putumayo genocide

Putumayo genocide
Putumayo genocide
Part of the Amazon rubber boom
	Huitoto natives in conditions of slavery
Location	Colombia and Peru
Date	1879 – 1912
Attack type	Slavery, genocidal rape, torture, crimes against humanity
Deaths	32,000 to 40,000+
Perpetrators	Peruvian Amazon Company

The Putumayo genocide (Spanish: genocidio del Putumayo) refers to the severe exploitation and subsequent ethnocide of the indigenous population in the Putumayo region.

The booms of raw materials incentivized the exploration and occupation of uncivilized land in the Amazon by several South American countries, gradually leading to the subjugation of the local tribes in the pursuit of rubber extraction. The genocide was primarily perpetrated by the Peruvian Amazon Company during the Amazon rubber boom from 1879 to 1912, under the leadership of its general manager, the Peruvian entrepreneur Julio César Arana. Arana's company, along with Benjamín Larrañaga, first enslaved the native population and subjected them to dreadful brutality.

The company meant making the indigenous work under deteriorated conditions, which led to mass death as well as extreme punishment. The main figures of the company, including Elías Martinengui, Andrés O'Donnell, and the Rodríguez brothers, committed mass starvation, torture, and killings. The company educated a group of native males—Muchachos de Confianza—in policing their fellow men and torturing them.

Nine in every ten targeted Amazonian populations were destroyed in the Putumayo genocide. The company continued its work even after 215 arrest warrants were issued against its workers in 1911. The dissolution of the company did not stop it from providing Arana and his partners with means to subjugate the native population of the Putumayo region. Although the genocide is of great historical significance, it remains relatively unknown. Eyewitness accounts by Walter Ernest Hardenburg and Roger Casement brought the atrocities to global attention.

^ Tully, John (2011). The Devil's Milk A Social History of Rubber. Monthly Review Press. p. 86. ISBN 978-1-58367-261-7.
^ "Cien años después, la Amazonía recuerda uno de sus episodios más trágicos" [One hundred years later, the Amazon remembers one of its most tragic episodes]. BBC News (in Spanish). October 12, 2012. Archived from the original on January 27, 2023. Retrieved July 30, 2021.
^ Uriarte, Javier; Martínez-Pinzón, Felipe, eds. (2019). Intimate Frontiers A Literary Geography of the Amazon. Liverpool University Press. p. 120. ISBN 9781786949721.
^ Department of State 1913, pp. 119, 160.

[1] Tully, John (2011). The Devil's Milk A Social History of Rubber. Monthly Review Press. p. 86. ISBN 978-1-58367-261-7.

[BBC1-2] "Cien años después, la Amazonía recuerda uno de sus episodios más trágicos" [One hundred years later, the Amazon remembers one of its most tragic episodes]. BBC News (in Spanish). October 12, 2012. Archived from the original on January 27, 2023. Retrieved July 30, 2021.

[3] Uriarte, Javier; Martínez-Pinzón, Felipe, eds. (2019). Intimate Frontiers A Literary Geography of the Amazon. Liverpool University Press. p. 120. ISBN 9781786949721.

[FOOTNOTEDepartment_of_State1913119,_160-4] Department of State 1913, pp. 119, 160.

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