(Estimated Pub Date) the Challenge of Ethnic Conflict to National and International Order in the 1990S: Geographic Perspectives- October 1995

Approved for Release: 2018/06/01 C00123268
the past. Indians in Bolivia and Peru are likely to pro-
test any attempt to reduce coca production in that
country if they are not matched with the development
of an alternative source of comparable income.
Because most producers in both countries are Indian
and because coca production and consumption are so
strongly linked tolndian culture, the issue of reducing
production may be seen as one more effort on the part
of the white-mestizo state to keep Indians from full
participation in the national economy. Nevertheless,
the immediate prospects for large-scale violent ethnic
conflict do not seem great in the Andean countries.
Lowland Indian?
Lowland Indians,- unlike their highland counterparts,
have been little influenced by European culture. Con-
tact between these indigenous groups and the state has
been relatively recent. Most peripheral or lowland
areas have been opened up for development-—bring-
ing military, colonists, and developers into direct con-
frontation with their long-term Indian occupants--
only during the past half-century.
The incorporation of peripheral territories, formerly
considered empty and useless, into the effective
national territory of the Amazon states--Brazil, Suri=
name, Guyana, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru,
and Bolivia——has inevitably disrupted the cultures of
the unacculturated or partially acculturated native
inhabitants of the region. The unfortunate results of
these contacts are well documented. They include: the
spread of deadly diseases to highly susceptible popu-
lations, loss of land, forced acculturation to Western
life styles, and incorporation into the cash-based econ-
omy. In addition, many Indians have been killed by
the military, colonists, miners, and other intruders of
their territory. In the 500 years since the arrival of~—'—
Europeans in the Western Hemisphere, the number of
Indians in the Amazon Basin has been reduced from
an estimated 6-12 million to about 200,000. The pro-
cess has nearly reached its conclusion, since few, if
any, refuges remain where native peoples can avoid
contact with bearers of national culture.
Despite the declining numbers of lowland Indians,
contacts between them and outsiders have the potential
to produce conflicts that can escalate to international
levels. One excellent example is the August 1993 mur-
der of a number of Yanomami Indians by Brazilian
miners in the Brazil-Venezuela frontier area.’ This
incident had international implications for several rea-
sons. The Brazilian miners apparently attacked the
Indians in Venezuelan territory, which makes the inci-
dent of interest to that state, and the Indians have close
ties to cultural and environmental organizations in the
United States and Europe as well as within Brazil,
itself. Thus, the impact of this incident extended far
beyond the rain forests of the upper Orinoco River,
where it took place. It threatened to reinforce Brazil’s
already negative image as a country that permits or
even promotes environmentally destructive develop-
ment, ignores or violates the boundaries of national
parks and cultural or biological reserves, mistreats
Indians, and has laws that favor concentration of
wealth in the hands of a small elite while millions of
poor barely survive in urban slums or on tiny farms.
These conflicts between native peoples and the state in
Latin America have parallels in other parts of the
world, especially in Indonesia, Malaysia, Burma,
Thailand, and the Philippines in Southeast Asia. In
these countries logging, mineral exploitation, resettle-
ment programs, and land development have displaced
or threaten to displace native populations with econo-
mies based on shifting agriculture or hunting and
gathering. Some African ethnic conflicts have similar
root causes, but longstanding disputes among ethnic
groups are more often responsible for setting off
hostilities.
5 This incident illustrates the difficulty of preventing conflict
between Indian groups and outsiders where valuable resources are
at stake. The Indians live in isolated areas where both military and
ment wishes to provide it, which is not always the case. And,
because of certain taboos or customs of the Indians, it may be diffi-
cult for outsiders to assess exactly how serious a conflict may be.
For example, the estimates of Yanomami killed in the August 1993
raid ranged from 20 to 73, with the final number probably lying
closer to the lower end of the range. The Yanomami believe that
mentioning the dead will bring back their spirits to haunt the living
and their counting system does not extend beyond two; therefore, it
is extremely difficult to get them to reveal basic numeric data on an
incident such as the miners’ raid.
88 i-
Approved for Release: 2018/06/01 C00123268
police protection is difficult to provide, even if the national govern-