SUCUSARI, Peru (AP) — It is the longest bridge ever built in Peru, a massive cement and iron structure that spans the Nanay River and connects to pristine areas of the Peruvian Amazon.
So far it’s going nowhere.
The bridge is part of a federal highway project that will connect Iquitos, in northeastern Peru, with the El Estrecho district on the Colombian border, a total of about 188 kilometers (117 miles). It faces mounting opposition from indigenous tribes who fear construction will lead to land grabbing, deforestation and drug trafficking, which plague similar projects in the world’s largest rainforest.
“The highway will kill us,” Everest Ochoa, a member of the Maijuna indigenous group living in the Peruvian Amazon, told the Associated Press. “We must stop this project for the sake of our children, to protect the country for them.”
Construction work is on hold while the government conducts a survey of the area, but the Ministry of Transport has already built the country’s largest bridge, stretching 2.3 kilometers over the Nanay River, a tributary of the Amazon.
Indigenous leaders say communities along the highway route have not been consulted
“The government has not asked us anything about the highway that passes through our territory and we want our rights to be respected,” said community leader Artur Francis Cruz Ochoa.
His community, Nuevo Arenal, is next to the bridge and has already suffered, he said. “Drugs have already started to infiltrate our community, young people are already using them. With the highway construction it will get worse.”
In the village of Sucusari, also near the future path, people echo the same fears. It is a community of thatched houses, where the 180 inhabitants live a traditional lifestyle, fishing, hunting and growing fruit for the local markets, mostly aguaje, an Amazonian delicacy.
“We will lose land, animals, fish, the water will be polluted and the forest. If the forest is lost, we will no longer have water. We will not have life without water,” said Sebastian Rios Ochoa. “The highway will put an end to the abundance we have now.”
In a written message to AP, the Transportation Ministry said the goal of the project is to connect people along the trail and promote local economies, strengthen trade and help bring security to border areas.
The ministry said the construction of the bridge is considered a public services infrastructure project and therefore does not require prior consultation with indigenous tribes under Peruvian law.
The Iquitos-El Estrecho is the largest and most expensive highway construction in the Peruvian Amazon, according to a recent report by the Peruvian Society of Environmental Law, a nonprofit organization. The report says there is already land grabbing and deforestation in indigenous areas.
The highway will cross two protected areas, Maijuna Kichwa and Ampiyacu Apayacu, which cover approximately 8,000 square kilometers of old-growth forest, according to the report.
Zoila Ochoa Garay, 58, cries inconsolably as she speaks of her community of Nuevo Arenal, where the first stretch of the highway begins.
“Since the beginning of this highway project, people have been invading our community’s land,” she said. “There is no justice here.”
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Fabiano Maisonnave in Brasilandia, Brazil, contributed to this report.
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