The second parts are never good

FACTORTIERRA looked for Josefa Adrianzén to know the evolution of her mistreatment and abuse case because of the environment defense.

 

By Lenin Nima Alzamora

 

HUANCABAMBA, Peru – At 6:30 in the afternoon, Thursday, September 4^th, 2008, we boarded the bus that would bring us to our destination. Throughout a steep road, (path in some segments) to the Andean City of Huancabamba. The goal of our trip was going to look for two leader women who, after organizing to face foreign enterprises, have been victims of outrageous incidents and attempts against her freedom and the own life (facts going from the jail and violence until kidnapping and torture).

 

Eight hours of intense trip were waiting for us through a wild landscape. The bus company assured us we would arriving to the city approximately at 3:00 in the morning. The 8-hour trip was pleasant by a good talk.

 

Around 8:00, it was posible to see, through the window, how the landscape was changing and the characteristic geography of our highlands, still shy, was seen to appear. Around 9:00 at night, the lolands landscape has abandoned us to give pass to the straight zig-sag of the highland road raising amid the mountain.

 

And still amid the dark of the highlands, it was possible to see, beside the road, a deep abyss that let to see tiny lights inside from the villages left behind. Despite the road has much danger, the landscape is possible to enjoy with a mix of wonder and risk. The weather also is feeling colder due to the height.

 

Around 11:00 at night, the bus stopped in Canchaqué Town, that is characterized by its multi-color landscape, and that was in anniversary that evening. The stop goal was a restaurant to have a supper. We also took advantage to walk around the Little square next to the restaurant and breathing a little fresh air. From here, the trip would be riskier because the steep section of the road was waiting for us.

 

Just later, blinding and powerful lights appeared like a flash in the middle of the dark, and the shine they gave awoke many in the bus. We have arrived to a stretch high-risk curve that must be passed through very carefully because the way turns narrow and the huge rocks (33-to-43 feet stones )that oscillate dangerously above our heads.

 

Of course, that in one side and the scaring abyss to the another side confusing with the night darkness. It’s precisely this reason why the presence of powerful lamps in this part of the road, to light the road to the drivers, those are guided by traffic police officers at the same time.

 

All those cautions are taken thinking of any accident, that is very feasible in those conditions. The risky of this sector is manifested in the distressing time lapse that the buses take to cross it (around 20 minutes), especially if it’s produced (like our case) an encounter on the way of a bus “that comes down” from Huancabamba to the ours “going up”. Once the fear overcame, we can have the certainty that the worst has finished.

 

We arrived into Huancabamba around 3:30 in the morning and we had to go out looking for hosting, and as there was no transportation, we had to walk for doing it. We walked through the streets to the Main Square and at least after 40 minutes, we got finding one with available rooms (we must say the hotel capability is not the best of the city).

 

Re-meeting Josefa

After resting (around 1½ hour), Liliana is the first one waking up and after taking a cold shower (the hostel had no hot water), we went, at 6:30 in the morning, to Mrs Josefa Adrianzén’s house. When leaving the hostel, we could look at the great landscape that the city surrounded by mountains offers us.

 

Liliana warned me that we only would meet Mrs Josefa Adrianzén because (our bad luck) the other female leader (Cleofé Neyra) was precisely that day (Friday, September 5^th, 2008) doing some paperwork in Piura City. When we got Josefa’s house, she was waiting for us seated outside with a couple of young (fight partners) and one of her daughters.

 

We introduced. After some minutes talking about the work of the defender and about the last facts happened in Huancabamba, we proceeded to the interview. The humble condition of the female leader is possible to perceive bare-eyed, her house is, like the most of the houses in the community, built of keencha (a wall made of mud with cane) and adobe (mud bricks).

 

Josefa showed like a serius-but-friendly woman, her face reflected confidence and some fatigue too, but also a good attitude to have us. We started, like I said, with the interview. My goal here is describing my experience during this because I could perceive some things looking like relevant to me.

 

As the interview unfolded, Josefa answered naturally and fluently the questions asked. She let to see two topics in her answers, first, she showed unbreakable and pretty moody. She narrated us with wondering dignity the horrible events she had to face when she was kidnapped by a peat that drove her violently and humilliantly to the police station for being jailed later, without any proof, for over than three months (also having to face the sorry fact to spend the New Year holiday in a cold, little cell far away her family).

 

All that because she was a woman who participated of the leadership in the fight against the stakes of a mining company that have not shown the warrants sustaining a reliable exploitation project yet.

 

Legal support wanted

But including this Josefa’s special attitude, I also could realize that she maybe has acted in a few discrete way regarding her own and her family’s safety because she exposed much to this kind of incidents amid unfolding her work as a defender. She revealed in the interview that she didn’t fear anyway and she didn’t care about the threats against her because she felt safe, clean conscience.

 

This way to think (very legitimate and honest) is, nevertheless, quite ingenous and a little prudent but it’s understandable because Josefa’s position was caused, in my opinion, by the ignorance of the real size of problems and threats she could experience.

 

This also added to an ignorance of defense and self-protection mechanisms (as well as protection legal mechanisms) revealed Liliana and me a big problem regarded to the work those women do – the ignorance related to the legal issue.

 

Josefa not only didn’t denounce on time the incident she was a victim (because she didn’t knew how and where do it exactly) but she has not denounced other incidents she had to bear. Inclusive, she didn’t keep almost any document delivered to her because of the lawsuits (the one she sued and other sued to her by a guy involved in the sorry incident). Plus, she didn’t know or she ignored her legal file number (something fundamental to track a lawsuit status in the country, without it, it’s long and almost impossible to track it).

 

Josefa neither had a clear memory on the facts chronology, she neither has registered them in exact dates. Even it, Josefa manifested us that, like her, the most of women in the zone ignore defense legal mechanisms, and she looked surprised wwhen we asked her for a copy of the denounces documents and legal exams she was submitted to after the incident. She manifested “not to have them right there” but she promised to look for them and send them to us (what she did do a couple of weeks later, but that unfortunately don’t add almost anything new or useful to the case, it seems Josefa simply didn’t have the most important documents or she has lost them).

 

The threat against the women

However, all this lack of prevention by Josefa (that can look like irresponsible) is not only justifiable but it’s also reasonable and understandable because (like many women of Andean communities, many of them are illiterate) suffers from a common ignorance in our country, and she is victim of that feeling of unprotection andexclusion that take our Andean compatriots aside, who simply don’t consider they are part of the system because it’s not effective to them. The State, the laws, and the human rights are almost unknown here.

 

That’s why it becomes almost urgent the need to inform those women about their legitimate rights and the legal mechanisms supporting them, the role that the authorities must play to them, and the warrants the law can offer them, as well as the institutions and the instances they can run to when one of their rights (whatever) are attacked or humiliated.

 

Providing this kind of information and help to those women is urgent not only because it will help them to do their defense work completely safer but it would also contribute to fix a deep injury in the conscience of those people – the impunity sensation when their rights are violated, because they unfortunately have accostumed to see the law simply doesn’t work as much as they prefer to let the things spending by.

 

Disappointment

Finished the interview and the meeting with the defender, around 10:30 in the morning, we went to the downtown intended to have breakfast. After that, we went to the hostel for organizing the collected information and recharging power because that afternoon we would go looking for one of the contributers in the organization Josefa worked for

 

In the afternoon, we walked through the city and around to monitor the perception of the people regarding the mining project and we proved the most openly disagreed. We tried once again to contact the another female leader (Mrs Cleofé Neyra) but we couldn’t catch her because she continued in Piura.

 

Then, we decided to buy the return tickets to Piura and we found there were just for the next day, so we went to the hostel to organize the baggage and have lunch later. Another long trip waited for us the next day. The road was more pleasant this time geographically speaking but not emotionally.

 

The fascination provocated by the quiet landscape and the imponent silence of the mountain that I felt at the first trip, today was accompanied by a sensation of worryness and the thinking that there is still much to do in this fight, but it was also hope there would be people that still want to and can help this cause what made alone to me amid our highland’s mountains impregnated of nostalgia and homesick.

 

This story was produced in association with the Latin American Union of Women. © 2008 Asociación Civil Factor Tierra. All Rights Reserved. Produced by Juan Félix Céspedes Cortés.