Hernando De Soto and The Dog in the Manger

If you read Bebbington (2009) you'll find out more about former President Alan García views of the Amazon and its peoples. Believe it or not, he comes from a left-wing party, called APRA, founded in early 1900s under the slogan of anti-imperialism.

Yet, once in power (again 1985-1990 and 2006-2011), García passed decrees that weakened indigenous peoples. By comparing them to "The Dog in the Manger" (the dog that can't eat, but don't let others eat either), he emphasized that the nation's development would not be stopped because of few protestors.

More dramatic (and sad) is his vision of indigenous spirituality:

“[Debemos] derrotar las ideologías absurdas, panteístas, que creen que las paredes son dioses y el aire es dios (…) [Evitar] volver a esas formas primitivas de religiosidad, donde se dice: ‘no toques ese cerro porque es un apu y está lleno del espíritu milenario’ (…) Usted puede ir a cualquier lugar donde la población, de buena fe y de acuerdo a su educación, dice: ‘no me toquen esa zona porque es un santuario’. Y uno pregunta ¿santuario de qué? (…) Si es un santuario porque ahí están las almas de nuestros antepasados, las almas de nuestros antepasados están en el paraíso, seguramente. Deje usted que los que ahora viven se nutran o tengan trabajo en la inversión en esos cerros”.

Many say that García's doctrine was inspired in Hernando De Soto's ideas (some even say that the articles were written by De Soto and not García). De Soto is one of Peru's most renowned intellectuals, probably the second most famous Peruvian after Mario Vargas Llosa. Yet his ideas are controversial. "The Mystery of Capital" is his most famous book.

After the Bagua episode in the Amazon, (2009) De Soto prepared a documentary in which he proposes to grant formal title to land (parcelization of communal lands) and limited liability corporations to indigenous peoples, as a way out to increasing conflicts over lands and resources.

You can watch the documentary (in English) here:

http://www.ild.org.pe/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=62&Itemid=264&lang=en

(Needless to say, I'm not necessarily advocating for De Soto solutions; I'm just sharing this video for further discussion).

Finally, to be fair, I think that García discourse is not very dissimilar from the way the Federal Government, and the US Supreme Court, regard native Americans. I'm not an expert in Indian Law, but from many cases I've read regarding the construction of dams, ski resorts, oil wells and mining facilities within sacred lands, I can see that native Americans lose most of the time.

All the best,

Patrick