Peru will divide an indigenous community and two protected areas to build a highway to Colombia

This summary is generated by artificial intelligence and reviewed by the editorial team.

Marilyn Gatica Huanio arrived at the triple border between Peru, Brazil and Colombia at the end of March to meet with their peers, other indigenous leaders. Its objective is to reduce the environmental and social impact that the construction of the Bellavista-El Estrecho highway would bring, promoted by the Peruvian Government and which will pass through half of its indigenous community.

The 36-year-old leader is head of Centro Arenal, an indigenous community that brings together 300 members of the Pueblo of Murui-Muinani in the Punchana district, in the Loreto region, in the eastern Amazon of Peru.

Read more | “In Colombia, in environmental and defender issues we continue to be a country that remains largely rhetorical” | INTERVIEW

Centro Arenal, located just 10 kilometers from the city of Iquitos, is fighting. “The route proposed by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications of the highway passes through half of the community. This will only bring more invaders, we do not agree,” Gatica Huanio tells Your friend during a trip to the area.

The highway route It was approved in 2025 by the Ministry of Transport and Communications. The first section of this project linked Bellavista with Santo Tomás and involved the construction of the Nanay bridge. The second section will extend to Mazán. The third will be a river route from Mazán to Salvador and the fourth reaches El Estrecho, with 147.4 kilometers of road. In total the road will be around 200 kilometers.

According to the final study of the second section of the project, 35.6 kilometers of highway will be built, starting in the town center of Santo Domingo—just at the end of the Nanay bridge—, passing through the towns of Picuroyacu and San Antonio. The highway would reach the indigenous community Centro Arenal, crossing this territory in half. Then it would advance towards the San Juan de Sinchicuy hamlet until it reached the San Rafael peasant community and would end at the Mazán River.

“When they did the study, they did not explain to us that the highway would pass through half of our community.that’s why the previous leaders approved it. Only in 2024 did we find out that our territory would be divided,” the leader questioned.

To get to Centro Arenal you must take a vehicle from the city of Iquitos. The route is a 20-minute trip on an unpaved road. However, it is not the only way within the community. In 2014, when the construction of the Bellavista-El Estrecho highway was confirmed and that it would pass near the Murui-Muinani community, the invasions beganaccording to Gatica Huanio.

The indigenous leader explained that the community has 1,977 hectares and has been titled since 1967. “We are next to the Amazon River and At the other end of the community the invaders have opened a trail [camino de tierra] which they called Joaquin Abensur, where they illegally remove wood from our territory”, he assures.

In the last 10 years, the community made eleven complaints for illegal logging, says Gatica Huaino.

“All the complaints we make are filed. There is no justice for us because we cannot enter that part of our territory. Every time we approach they threaten us with weapons or beat us,” he said.

The Peruvian Society of Environmental Law (SPDA) in a 2024 study also identified damage to the Centro Arenal community, despite the fact that the formal construction of the road had not yet begun. “After the execution of the first section and the construction of the Nanay bridge, invasions, deforestation and land trafficking were generated. in the Centro Arenal community,” the document reads.

The Ministry of Transportation and Communications plans to build more than 35 Bryan Jara, legal specialist with the SPDA Environmental Policy and Governance Program, explained to Your friend that the construction of the highway is affecting the traditional way of life of the Centro Arenal community.

“While the road would bring connectivity for local residents, there is also ihigh cost impacts: deforestation, change in communal life and invasions. If this highway is not planned well, it will have great environmental and social impacts.mainly for the indigenous inhabitants of the surrounding areas, so citizen participation mechanisms must consider the vulnerability of the local population,” he stated.

In September 2024, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MTC) began the prior consultation process to obtain the social license for the construction of the second section of the highway: Santo Domingo—Mazán. In that first meeting The Government informed the community that the road will pass through half of the community.

“The Ministry’s plan is to open a new road within the community. That is, the Joaquín Abensur trail, the one that is already invaded is not considered, but will be a new one. This will bring more invasions,” agrees Isaac Alejo, legal specialist of the NGO Environmental Law and Natural Resources (DAR), who accompanies the community in the prior consultation process.

The lawyer explained that during 2025, the prior consultation process was paralyzed because other communities had not been included, only Centro Arenal was there, but after the claims Santa Clotilde, El Milagro and Independencia are now also participating, which would be indirectly affected by the layout of the highway.

However, The Ministry has only put the final study of the highway for consultation. That is, the line that will be built, but The environmental impact study and the archeology study are not being consulted.maintain the experts and indigenous representatives consulted.

“The justification is that the National Environmental Certification Service (Senace) will carry out its own consultation process of the environmental impact studybut the impacts of the study and the mitigation and adaptation measures and those who intervene within it should be brought to prior consultation to be clear about the social and environmental clauses,” questioned Alejo.

Your friend He asked the Ministry why they did not include the environmental impact study, but until the closing of this note there was no response. Meanwhile, the Office of Dialogue and Social Management of this portfolio requested an application of deadlines for prior consultation to manage administrative issues.

Peru will divide an indigenous community and two protected areas to build a highway to Colombia

ByEditor

By Editor

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