Chapter VII: Hardenburg's Investigations (2)

With regard to the pay they give the Indians for the rubber that these poor wretches extract, this is the most shameless system that can be imagined. In La Chorrera, which is the principal branch of this company in the Putumayo, I saw them give some Indians a few caps, matches, mirrors, and other trifles, the value of which did not amount to five _soles_, in return for a large quantity of rubber that they had delivered. The Indians, humble and resigned, took this trash and disappeared into the forest, seeing, reflected in the mirrors they received in exchange for their labour, the scars that the infamous hands of the Peruvian Amazon Company's employees had made all over their weak bodies.

The Indians of the Putumayo are more than slaves of the "civilising" company, as this syndicate of crime has the barefacedness to call itself, for it exploits them in all ways, and the poor Indians can reckon neither with their lives, their women, nor their children: the company is the absolute owner of life and property.

My belief is that the slavery of these Indians will terminate only when the rubber is exhausted here, which will not be very distant; for even now the Indians, in their desire to collect all the rubber demanded by their owners, and not finding it near, mix the juices of other trees with it, and it is for this reason that the rubber extracted in the Putumayo at present is of such a poor quality. When the rubber gives out, the detestable slavery of the Indians will end. But which will be exterminated first, the Indians or the rubber-trees, it is hard to say.

In conclusion, I will state that if there were no Indians in the region of the Putumayo to work free, the company would have nothing to deal in, and consequently would fall to the ground, for its assets are acquired by pillage.

Trusting that this will help you somewhat in the task you have undertaken of unmasking these wolves.

CELESTINO LÓPEZ.

(_Sworn before_) FEDERICO M. PIZARRO, _Notary Public_.

IQUITOS, _May 17, 1909_.

SR. W. E. HARDENBURG,--In reply to your letter of the 16th inst., I give you the following exact and reliable information of what I have witnessed during my stay on the River Putumayo, to be used for any purpose that you deem proper:--

To face p. 250.]

On the 15th of June, 1907, I arrived at the section Matanzas, which is under the orders of the sanguinary and criminal Armando Norman, the chief of this section. As soon as I arrived he ordered a commission, composed of twenty-five men, to go out on a _correría_ and to bring in chained up, all the Indians they might find, together with their women and children. The bandit Norman furnished to this commission, as food for the twenty days they would be absent, fifteen tins of sardines, at the same time ordering that nobody should carry any more clothes than he wore on his back, in order to avoid the extra weight, for in this way they would be better able to carry out the orders he imparted to them.

At the end of about twenty days the commission returned, bringing in, among men, women, and children, about thirty Indians, all in chains, who, as soon as they arrived at the house, were delivered to Norman. Then Norman stepped up and asked three old Indians and two young women, their daughters, where the rest of the Indians were. They replied that they did not know, as several days before they had all dispersed in the forest, owing to the fear they had of him. Norman then grasped his _machete_ and murdered these five unfortunate victims in cold blood. Their bodies were left stretched out near the house and Norman's dogs took charge of them, for he has them well trained; so well trained are these animals that the morning is rare that they do not appear with an arm or a leg of a victim at the bedside of this monster.

The rest of the Indians brought by this commission were, by the orders of Norman, secured in the _cepo_, which, as a rule, exists in all the sections. As Norman had given the order not to give the poor wretches any food, it was not long before they began to fall ill and utter cries of pain and desperation; whenever this occurred, Norman grasped his _machete_ and cut them to pieces, leaving the remains of these victims, for the space of from four to six days, at the side of their companions, who were doomed to a similar fate. Whenever these remains--already in a state of putrefaction--became offensive to this bandit, he compelled the Indian prisoners to put them in heaps and set fire to them.

About twenty days after this event Norman ordered another commission of ten criminals to go out and bring in a _capitán_, with all his family. This order was strictly carried out, the criminals returning in five days, bringing the _capitán_, his wife, and two children, all in chains. As soon as they arrived Norman submitted them to a cross-examination, asking them why they did not bring in the amount of rubber that he required from them and that his superiors had ordered him to get, to which the _capitán_ replied that as the quantity he demanded was very large, sometimes it was impossible to collect it all. This answer was sufficient to cause Norman to tie up his hands and feet with a chain and to order three armfuls of wood to be placed about the unfortunate victim, he himself bringing half a tin of kerosene and, with his own hands, setting fire thereto. When the poor wretch's wife saw this horrible act of cruelty, she implored Norman not to murder her husband in such a barbarous manner; this sufficed for Norman to cut off her head and throw her on the funeral pile of her husband. After this he took the two children and, after dismembering them with his _machete_, threw their remains on the same fire.

To terminate with this repugnant criminal, whom I have seen commit crimes so horrible that perhaps they are unequalled in the history of the entire world, it is sufficient to say that I have seen him repeatedly snatch tender children from their mothers' arms, and, grasping them by the feet, smash their heads to pieces against the trunks of trees.

I have also seen him commit another most barbarous crime. This was on the 11th of July, 1907, at about 4 p.m. The victim was a poor Indian woman whom he had ordered to serve as a concubine for one of his adjutants. The woman refused to obey this order as she already had an Indian husband. This was sufficient for Norman to cut off her legs and leave her in a field near the house, where she remained a night and a day, until he himself went out to finish her with his Mauser revolver.

For the same reason Norman suspended another Indian woman from four stakes by her hands and feet, and, after giving her one hundred lashes, he took a Peruvian flag, which happened to be handy, and tearing it to pieces and sousing it with kerosene he wound it around her feet and set fire to it. As soon as the woman started to run off, crazed with the awful agony, he grasped his Mauser and practised target-shooting with her until he brought her down.

To convince oneself of the truth of these statements, it is sufficient to approach the neighbourhood of Matanzas, for on all sides one sees the ground sown with skulls and other human remains. If I were to relate all the crimes I have seen committed in this devilish Putumayo, it would be nothing less than writing a whole book. I will, however, give particulars of the doings of some other chiefs, no less criminal than the bloodthirsty Norman.

After three months I applied for a transfer from this horrible depot. This application was granted, and they sent me to the depot known as La Sabana, where I found as chief Arístides Rodríguez. About two weeks after my arrival at this place Rodríguez had four Indians of the Recígaros tribe brought in. As soon as they arrived he asked them why they had not brought any rubber, and the unfortunates, fearful of what awaited them, lowered their humble glances to the ground and did not answer a word. Then Arístides ordered one of his secretaries, who to-day walks freely with him about the streets of Iquitos, to take four more employees and to cut off the heads of those Indians and burn them, which order was at once carried out at the side of the house.

Shortly after this Rodríguez went out in charge of a commission of fifty men to a point called Cahuinarí. Once there, he proceeded to murder a hundred and fifty Indians, men, women, and children. These murders were carried out with rifles and _machetes_. Afterwards they arrived at some Indian houses and fired them by order of Rodríguez. In these houses there were at least forty families, according to an individual who accompanied Rodríguez, who went in first to ascertain what Indians there were inside. Here a most horrible spectacle was witnessed, and it was appalling to hear the groans and laments of the Indians enwrapped in the devouring flames of the fire.

About twenty days after this occurrence Rodríguez started for Santa Catalina, and on the journey, he met four Indians of the Maynanes tribe, who were _en route_ to put themselves at his service. Rodríguez, instead of receiving them, placed his carbine to his shoulder and shot them to death.

This infamous agent has a brother[120], who is chief of Santa Catalina, called Aurelio Rodríguez, a wretch no less criminal than his brother, for in the month of March of the year 1908, when I was at Santa Catalina, a commission arrived, bringing four Indians in chains. This Aurelio Rodríguez then remarked that he felt anxious to test his shooting, and, without more ado, took his carbine and began to shoot at those poor Indians, with the result that in a few minutes they fell shot to death; afterwards he had them burned.

After all these events I made all possible exertions to get away from this awful region, and, after some work, I succeeded in getting transferred to El Encanto, where another monster, Miguel S. Loayza, is chief. On one occasion this other repugnant criminal gave orders to his confidential secretary, the negro, King, to go with several other employees and take a poor Colombian, whose name I do not now recall, prisoner. As soon as they brought him to El Encanto, Loayza had him assassinated by the negro, King, and afterwards thrown into the river.

All these deeds occur with great frequency in the Putumayo. Would to God that the weight of justice would fall over this awful region!

_For_ GENARO CAPORO, JOSÉ ANTONIO.

(_Sworn before_) FEDERICO M. PIZARRO, _Notary Public_.

IQUITOS, _May 17, 1909_.

SEÑOR W. E. HARDENBURG,--I have just received your letter of yesterday, in which you ask me for information about my residence on the River Putumayo, and especially concerning the things that I have witnessed. I will inform you that during a stay of seven years up there I have witnessed crimes, floggings, mutilations, and other outrages.

In 1902 I went to the Señores Arana of this city and asked them for work in the rubber business which I was told they had in the Putumayo. My application was at once accepted by Julio C. Arana, who promised me S.40 per month good food, medicines, and passage there and back. I will state that these promises were not carried out, but were disregarded to such an extreme that I became almost a slave of this company.

When I arrived at La Chorrera they gave me a position as fireman on the launch _Mazán_, where I remained seven months. At the end of this time Victor Macedo ordered me to leave my position on this launch, for he wished me to start on a journey through the forest to enter the service of Elías Martenegui; but as I was already aware of the crimes that they carried out in the centre of the forest I refused.

This was sufficient for them to treat me brutally. For this reason I was tied up with an enormous chain around my waist and put in solitary confinement in one of the cells of La Chorrera. Here I remained ten days, guarded by the sentries, who had orders to shoot me if I attempted to protest against this imprisonment. Once I tried in my agony to speak to this Victor Macedo, but upon hearing my complaints he ordered them to give me a hundred lashes and to cover my mouth so that I could not cry out.

Thanks to some of those who were aware of my innocence and who protested, I was enabled to obtain my release at the end of ten days, but with the condition that I should leave at once to enter the service of the criminal chief of the section Atenas, Elías Martinengui.

The day after being released I set out for the section, accompanied by the chief Martinengui and his colleague O'Donnell. After a journey of two days we arrived at Atenas, and as Martinengui was aware that I would not serve as an instrument for the commission of crimes he ordered me to serve in the house. On the second day I became ill with rheumatism, which was probably caused by the imprisonment I had suffered in a damp and dirty cell of La Chorrera a few days before. This disease kept me prostrate for seven months, and had it not been for two Colombian employees who took pity on me and gave me something to eat whenever they could, I should have died for lack of food.

During my stay in this section I have seen them murder some sixty Indians, among men, women, and children. These poor wretches they killed by shooting them to death, by cutting them to pieces with _machetes_ and on great _barbacoas_ (piles of wood), upon which they secured the victims and then set fire to them. These crimes were committed by Martinengui himself and various of his confidential employees. I have repeatedly heard this monster say that every Indian who did not bring in all the rubber that he had been ordered to was sentenced to this fate.

About eight days after this occurrence Martinengui ordered a commission to set out for the houses of some neighbouring Indians and exterminate them, with their women and children, as they had not brought in the amount of rubber that he had ordered. This order was strictly carried out, for the commission returned in four days, bringing along with them fingers, ears, and several heads of the unfortunate victims to prove to the chief that they had carried out his orders.

After all these events I succeeded in getting permission to leave this section and return to La Chorrera, which I reached after a painful journey of four days. As I arrived completely disabled, owing to my illness and the journey, they ordered me to occupy one of the cells there.

About three days after my arrival some forty Ocaina Indians arrived as prisoners, who were shut up and enchained in another large cell. About 4 a.m. on the next day Victor Macedo, the chief of La Chorrera, had about eighteen employees brought in from La Sabana, and when they arrived he ordered them to flog the unfortunate Ocainas, who were imprisoned and in chains, to death. This order was at once carried out, but as many of these unhappy Indians did not succumb to the lash and the club, Macedo renewed the order, telling them to take the Indians out of the cell where they were, drag them to the bank of the river, shoot them there, and then set fire to them. These orders were strictly obeyed.

At about 9 a.m. they began carrying the fuel--wood and kerosene--that was to be used for the cremation, and at about 12 a.m. one Londoño, by order of the criminal Macedo, set fire to the unfortunate victims of the Ocainas tribe. This smouldering pile of human flesh remained there until about 10 a.m. on the next day. It was on one of the days of carnival in 1903 that this repugnant act of cruelty was committed, and the place was at some 150 metres from La Chorrera, almost exactly where the building of the "club" of La Chorrera is situated to-day. The higher employees of this company when they get drunk toast with glasses of champagne the one who can count the greatest number of murders.

A few days after this event I went up to the chief and manager of this establishment, Victor Macedo, and asked him for my account, telling him that I did not wish to work for this company any longer and that I wanted to return to Iquitos. The reply this miserable criminal gave me was to threaten me with more chains and imprisonment, telling me that he was the only one who gave orders in this region and that all who lived here were subject to his commands.

In accordance with this I had to leave La Chorrera for Santa Julia, the chief of which was the criminal Jiménez, who ordered me to set out at once for Providencia, where I again met Macedo. Macedo ordered me to begin work at Ultimo Retiro, where I found as chief José Inocente Fonseca. A few days after my arrival this chief had the Chontadura, Ocainama, and Utiguene Indians called, and about twenty-four hours later hundreds of Indians began to appear about the house in accordance with this order. Then this man Inocente Fonseca grasped his carbine and _machete_ and began the slaughter of these defenceless Indians, leaving the ground covered with over 150 corpses, among men, women, and children. This operation he carried out in company with six of his confidential secretaries, some of whom used their carbines, while others used their _machetes_. Fonseca, with his extra large chief's _machete_, massacred right and left the defenceless wretches, who, bathed in blood, dragged themselves over the ground, appealing in vain for mercy.

This tragedy over, Fonseca ordered all the bodies to be piled up and burned. This scene was still more horrible, for as soon as this order was obeyed and they were being burned cries of agony and desperation proceeded from those victims who were still alive. Meanwhile the monster Fonseca shouted out, "_I want to exterminate all the Indians who do not obey my orders about the rubber that I require them to bring in!_"

Some time after this Fonseca organised a commission of twenty men (by order of Macedo), under the command of one of his criminal confidential secretaries[121] called Miguel Rengifo, with orders to go to the Caquetá and to kill all the Colombians they found there. He also told them to bring the fingers, ears, and some of the heads of the victims, preserved in salt, as a proof that they had carried out these orders. After some seven days the said commission returned, bringing the remains that had been asked for. These were sent to the celebrated chiefs of this company, Victor Macedo and Miguel S. Loayza, so that they could see for themselves the success that the commission had met with.

The secretary, Rengifo, also informed Fonseca that one of the Indian guides whom he had taken along with him to discover the whereabouts of the Colombians had not behaved well. This sufficed for Fonseca to have him hung up by one leg, together with his little son, a boy about ten years of age. In this position they were given fifty lashes each, after which he had the chains by which they were suspended loosened at the top so that they would fall to the ground, striking their faces against the floor. As soon as this was concluded Fonseca ordered one of his employees to take his rifle, drag the unfortunate victims to the bank in front of the house, and to shoot them there, which was done immediately.

While this was being done an Indian woman arrived from Urania to put herself at the orders of Fonseca, but, horrified at this shocking spectacle, she started to run away. Fonseca then ordered four of his employees to arm themselves rapidly and kill her. When the woman had run about fifty metres, fleeing from the danger, she fell dead, pierced by the discharge that the four marksmen fired at her, the bullets burying themselves in the head of the innocent victim.

To terminate my already long narration of the great crimes of the Putumayo that I have witnessed during the seven years that I stayed there, I shall give you the names of some of the other monsters who dwell there, as I am ready to do if called before a court of justice. These diabolical criminals are: Arístides Rodríguez, Aurelio Rodríguez, Armando Norman, O'Donnell, Miguel Flores, Francisco Semanario, Alfredo Montt, Fidel Velarde, Carlos Miranda, Abelardo Agüero, Augusto Jiménez, Bartolomé Zumaeta, Luis Alcorta, Miguel S. Loayza, and the negro, King.

For lack of time, it is impossible for me to relate all the crimes that these criminals have committed. But I think that if I were called some day before a tribunal of justice I could tell the places, days, and hours in which they deluged the region of the Putumayo with these crimes, unequalled in the history of the entire world and committed upon men, women, and children of all ages and of all conditions.

To bring this narrative to a close I will mention some of the crimes committed in Santa Catalina by the chief of that section, Aurelio Rodríguez. On the 24th of May of last year this man ordered a _compadre_ of his, called Alejandro Vásquez, to take nine men and go to the village of the Tiracahuaca Indians and make prisoner an Indian woman who had formerly been in his service; as soon as they had captured her they were to kill her in the cruellest way possible.

Having received these orders, the commission set out at once and, arriving at the village, took the Indian woman prisoner. After proceeding a few minutes on the return journey, they tied her to a tree alongside the road, where Vásquez had three sticks of wood, with sharp points, prepared ...then they killed her by strangling her with a rope around the neck.[122]

Such are the crimes constantly committed on the Putumayo by the chiefs of sections and their assistants whose names I have mentioned. Trusting that this account may help you in drawing the attention of justice to this region.

DANIEL COLLANTES.

(_Sworn before_) ARNOLD GUICHARD, _Notary Public_.

A number of documents of a similar character complete Hardenburg's account, not included in this book, with a description of the Peruvian attack on the Colombian rubber station of La Unión and the destruction of its people, the Peruvians believing, or professing to believe, that the Colombians were descending the river to attack them.