Because of the spiritual connection they felt to their land, as well as the desire to preserve their traditional way of life that would be threatened by these development projects, the indigenous people protested in response. One group even detained some miners, in an effort to force the government to negotiate with them and restore their promise of conserving the tribes’ land. Some protests resulted in violent confrontation between the between the tribe and government police, which garnered sympathy for the tribe’s cause from many within the broader Peruvian populice. However, the tribes were labelled by the government as backwards and primitive, and their concerns were dismissed by the Energy Ministry of Peru as evidence of their ignorance of modern extraction practices, which the government and the mining companies insist does not cause pollution. Environmentalists disagree, and argue that the forests and rivers of the area are sourced out of the same mountain range where extraction projects are meant to take place, and this will potentially contaminate the natural resources on which the tribe relies. The companies also try to sow discord between members of the community with promises of jobs and money, to make easier their incursion and weaken the tribes’ united front against them. This succeeded and resulted in internal conflict, causing the disruption of social bonds within families and communities, and thus further threatening traditional practices.
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