Document #1337856
IRB – Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (Author)
The following is an unofficial translation
of a 2 July 1998 letter sent to the Research Directorate by the
President and Treasurer of Peru's National Agrarian Federation
(Confederación Nacional Agraria—CNA).
The letter provides information on the
cases of leaders and members of the CNA who were detained,
abducted, harrassed and/or killed from 1992 to 1996.
The only case listed by the CNA for 1994
occurred in July of that year. The signatories state that the
leaders of the Provincial Federation of Peasants and Natives of the
High Amazon Region (Federación Provincial de Campesinos y
Nativos del Alto Amazonas—FEPROCAINA), Nery Salinas
Dávila and Cirilo Torres Pinchi, were jailed for 9 months by
the special tribunal of Trujillo. They were accused by Congressman
Julio Castro Gómez of being high-ranking members of the
Revolutionary Movement Túpac Amaru (MRTA). The letter states
that those accusations were denied by the two leaders who were
further proven innocent and released.
The signatories report that the CNA, as a
representative body of Peruvian peasants and small and medium-size
farmers, represents, pinpoints and channels the demands of its
members to governmental bodies and defends the peasantry's
resources and rights. In fulfilling that role, the CNA strongly
criticizes the government and, as a result, has its telephone lines
tapped (intervenidas). Its attempts to dialogue with the Peruvian
government have been unsuccessful since the latter does not wish to
respond to the CNA's demands nor to communicate with the
organization.
This Response was prepared after
researching publicly accessible information currently available to
the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is
not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any
particular claim to refugee status or asylum.
Reference
Confederación Nacional Agraria
(CNA), Lima, Peru. 2 July 1998. Letter from the President and
Treasurer.