2023-04-29 14:31:37
WRITES: Japhy Wilson
On Tuesday, April 18, 2023, an attempt to evict the Villa Cruz human settlement by the National Police, in the district of San Juan Bautista, was successfully resisted by its inhabitants. There were several wounded on both sides. As usual in these cases, most of the local press reported on the conflict from the police perspective, in defense of the landowners, and with contempt for the so-called “invaders” and “land traffickers” who resisted the eviction.
But how do those who fight from the other side live violent evictions? During the events of that day I was together with the inhabitants of Villa Cruz. This is the story from his point of view.
In April 2012, around 100 parents from humble families, displaced by the floods that year, went in search of a place to build their homes and raise their children. They found a 12-hectare vacant lot about two kilometers from km 6 of the Iquitos-Nauta highway. In the words of one of the first owners: “It was a high mountain. We have killed snakes here. We have cut down large trees with a machete… We have worked a lot.”
The land had been granted to a businessman more than a decade ago by the Ministry of Agriculture for “agricultural purposes.” But it had not received any kind of use and care. Due to this violation of the terms of the concession, in 2014 the property was reverted to the State.
At that time, the land was already home to the flourishing human settlement of Villa Cruz, and its inhabitants awaited the prompt delivery of their titles. But in 2016, the businessman challenged the legality of the reversal, and in 2020 a court in Lima ruled in his favor. According to the residents, there was no legal basis for this decision, for which corruption was the only explanation.
After his death in 2022, the businessman’s daughters demanded the eviction of the inhabitants of Villa Cruz and the destruction of their human settlement. In April 2023, the community received notification that a court order had been issued for their eviction, which would take place on the 18th.
Villa Cruz already included more than five hundred houses, many of them with two floors and noble materials. Its inhabitants had arrived there under desperate circumstances and had built their community from scratch on an abandoned piece of land. They were not invaders but possessors. Why, then, should they allow illegitimate landlords and a corrupt judicial system to take away their home? In the words of a teacher from the Villa Cruz primary school, speaking the same morning of the eviction:
“We left in search of a place to live, where to bring our children, where to bring our parents. We are here now fighting… They are coming with policemen, tractors, and thugs… We are humble families. We are people who are here to defend justice. They say there is no justice. But we want to do justice today.”
Shortly after she made this statement, we received the news that the police were entering the road that runs from the Iquitos-Nauta highway to Villa Cruz. The men of the community came out to prevent this irruption, accompanied by members of other human settlements who supported their struggle. Along the way they build barricades of felled trees and burning tires.
We soon see hundreds of riot police, followed by several large “tractors” – the machines that will destroy Villa Cruz once the police have cleared the way, and some fifty “thugs”, supposedly hired by the landowners to provide violent assistance to the police. .
Before we could reach them, the police fired the first rounds of tear gas, exploding in thick columns of burning, choking smoke. Hooded women arrive with buckets of water mixed with vinegar to alleviate the suffering of the men on the front lines.
Without their own weapons, the residents would have no chance of resisting the eviction. As the clouds of tear gas clear, some men come forward, throwing Molotov cocktails at the rapidly advancing police officers. Then someone yells “they are with pellets”, and the authorities begin to shoot the young residents in the arms, chest, face. One of them has a bloody forehead. Someone arrives driving a motorcycle and takes him to Villa Cruz.
Now hooded men appear with shotguns and homemade weapons, and begin to repel the fire. The highway is already a war zone, filled with gunfire, explosions, and stifling gases. The police continue to press, but the residents hold the line, cheering amid the white smoke from tear gas and the black smoke from burning tires: “Come on, neighbors, come on!”
Suddenly the shouting increases: “They are backing down!” The police officers have suffered injuries and are moving cautiously towards the road. We all started running forward. Then a guy in front of me collapses, hit in the stomach by a live bullet. They carry him back through the barricades bleeding profusely. A woman runs in the other direction yelling, “I don’t know where my husband is.” Someone points in the direction of the police and says “he’s in front.”
But the road ahead is already clearing. The police leave, some column of gases still dotting the horizon. “There is already a withdrawal order,” someone says. Incredibly, the denizens have won the battle. But the atmosphere is gloomy because of the fallen comrade, who everyone presumes dead. We walked towards the road in silence. We later found out that he survived.
The last bursts of gases rise over the road as the police complete their withdrawal. A man standing on the side of the road brandishes a homemade weapon and roars: “Let’s make ourselves respected by corrupt governments!” We pass by the human settlements near the highway, and the inhabitants begin to chant: “The town is not for sale! The people defend themselves!”
When we reach the highway, the police have disappeared. A hundred humble and triumphant people block the road, jumping up and down in furious celebration of their impossible victory.
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#BATTLE #VILLA #CRUZ