Peru: AID Moves on Indian Valley

The United States Agency for International Development (AID) has sent project specialists to Peru to examine a loan request from the Peruvian government to develop infrastructure and agriculture in the Palcazu River Valley. According to Survival International, a New York-based organization. concerned with the rights of indigenous peoples, the project AID is considering would displace Ameusha and Campa Indians living in the region and destroy their tribal lands.

If the Peruvian government approves the project, U.S. equipment will be used to construct roads and U.S. seeds and fertilizers will be purchased for farming.

Such claims of violating Indian rights are premature, said William Rhodes, AID's Peru desk officer. "But what's the alternative?" he added. "Should these Indians be allowed to roam on all that land when their countrymen are malnourished? The legal or other rights of these Indians to continue their nomadic existence is not the only consideration of the Peruvian government."