Campaign to ‘destabilize’ Amazon Indigenous organization

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Peruvian Indigenous organization AIDESEP has spoken out against a ‘destabilization campaign’ aimed at destroying the country’s Indigenous movement.

The latest attack is the creation of a false email address which has been used to call an ‘Extraordinary Meeting’ in the name of AIDESEP’s vice-president Daysi Zapata Fasabi.

AIDESEP described Zapata Fasabi as ‘deeply indignant’ that her name is being used in this way and ‘tired’ of the attempts to destabilize her organization. In the last twelve months alone the government has tried to dissolve AIDESEP by legal means, investigated it for supposed financial irregularities, and, according to AIDESEP, financed the creation of a rival executive board within the organisation.

Warrants for the arrest of AIDESEP leaders have also been issued, forcing three of them to seek political asylum in Nicaragua. AIDESEP’s president, Alberto Pizango, is still in Nicaragua, and there were protests outside Peru’s Palace of Justice last week demanding his immediate return.

‘This isn’t the first time something like this happened. This is the latest attempt to try and destroy Peru’s Indigenous movement,’ AIDESEP said.

AIDESEP has its headquarters in Lima and represents more than 1,300 Indigenous communities in the Amazon. It also campaigns for the rights of Peru’s uncontacted tribes.