Peru: Ts+uni youth call for the creation of a Truth Commission for the Amazon to address crimes from the rubber era

A decisive day. Today, October 28, in Nauta, Loreto (in the Peruvian Amazon), 30 young people from the Kukama, Maijuna, Secoya, Achuar, Murui, Bora, Tikuna, Awajún, Arabela, and Wampis Indigenous peoples will present a request to judges for the creation of a Truth Commission for the Amazon—part of a struggle for truth, memory, and reparation regarding crimes committed during the rubber era.

The Ts+uni collective seeks to have Peru acknowledge one of the most painful periods in Amazonian history—a period that remains absent from the country’s official narrative and collective memory.

“The violence of the rubber era is neither an isolated episode nor a healed wound. The silencing and denial of these atrocities help perpetuate structures of exclusion, racism, and inequality that, in new forms, continue to affect Amazonian Indigenous peoples. The dynamics of economic domination, exploitation, and patronage systems have a history that must be recognized in order to understand how they persist today,” stated members of the Ts+uni collective (the name means “to listen”) in a press release.

“A Truth Commission would create a space to clarify the facts, hear the voices of the affected peoples, and contribute to the development of reparation measures and guarantees of non-repetition. It is not just about remembering the past; it is about understanding its present-day consequences and transforming the conditions that allow exclusion and violence to continue,” they added.

The young representatives from these 10 Indigenous peoples have issued a call to Indigenous organizations, youth collectives, human rights groups, communities, academic institutions, media outlets, artists, activists, and the general public to join this cause. for truth, memory, and justice.

Redacción Perú