By the Most Rev. Miguel Ángel Cadenas, president of the Amazonian Center for Anthropology and Practical Application (CAAAP) and the Pan-Amazonian Ecclesial Network (REPAM).
This article was published in Spanish in La República, a Peruvian national newspaper of record, and is reproduced here in translation with the kind permission of CAAAP, a longtime partner of Development and Peace ― Caritas Canada.
Recently, a nun told me about a conversation she had with a five-year-old boy, the son of a family that was trying to protect its land in Loreto from the advance of illegal mining, but were forced to leave their community due to threats. In the room where they were staying, the child, seated on a bed, took the cross that the sister wore around her neck in his hands. He asked, “Does he watch over you?”. The sister replied that he did. The child persisted, “He doesn’t let people kill you?”
He took out a piece of cardboard on which his sister had made a drawing that he described it. There was a river with fish, a forest, fields and little houses. Suddenly, pointing to the river, the boy said, “These are the dredgers; there are the dredgermen. They have knives and guns; my dad has to flee.”
This conversation with the sister accompanying that family reveals a cruel reality that is increasingly widespread along the Amazonian rivers: the insecurity in which families live due to conflicts arising from illegal mining. When there are threats and violence, children suffer disproportionately. Childhood is a time of discovery and learning, but what kind of world is this child discovering and what is he learning? A five-year-old should feel safe at home; he should not have to live in constant fear that someone will kill his father.
The world we live in is more uncertain than it was a decade ago, with insecurity that is not only physical but also political, which is reflected in the economy. In this unstable world, countries are choosing to invest in gold, considering it safer than any national currency. With increased demand, the price of gold is rising, which encourages illegal mining. Over the last 10 years, the price of gold on international markets has risen from US$1,600 per ounce (28 g) to over US$4,000, and is likely to continue rising. The main buyers are central banks. While the United States has the largest gold reserves, China, India, Poland and Turkey have accumulated the most gold in the last five years.
However, the security that gold provides in destination countries is inversely proportional to the insecurity it generates in the places where it is mined. In these areas, the state has little presence: public services are either absent or of poor quality. Added to this is a lack of research, which is necessary for the development of public policy. In thus failing to fulfill its role, the state exposes environmental defenders to an unequal fight against criminal organizations.
The level of violence prevalent in communities is experienced firsthand by environmental defenders, and children internalize the constant uncertainty in which their parents live. Children need routines, which give them a sense of security. So, when we tell them a story, they correct us if we change a word or forget something. Everything must be in its place. Any change in order disrupts their sense of security. That is why children are very sensitive to change: it disorients their world.
We ask ourselves: how do children feel when their environmental defender parents cannot maintain schedules and routines; when they have to disappear from home; when they appear upset, angry, or in a bad mood because of the problems they face? Children are a barometer of fear in the community. So, we are facing a large-scale mental health problem, something we do not usually think of when we talk about environmental defenders.
Shortly after her first conversation with the child, the nun was playing with him and some of his cousins. After several games, she had thought of teaching them the nursery rhyme “Mata titirulá títulá,” in which children choose professions they would like to pursue. But this frightened the boy, who asked, “Whom are they going to kill?”
It is very important to create a space of trust so that children can express what worries them and what they do not understand. At the same time, they need to know that they will be cared for and protected. The family plays a fundamental role, but when it faces threats and uncertainty, a question arises as to who can walk alongside them, accompany them and help them process what they are going through.
Our role as the Church is to be God’s encouraging presence when the horizon seems to be closing in. When injustice and impunity reign, we must be the prophetic presence expressed in Isaiah 41:10: “Do not fear, for I am with you, do not be afraid, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.”
However, it is the responsibility of the state to protect the most vulnerable by ensuring a permanent presence in remote areas where illegal mining is present, with basic services like schools in good condition, teachers who keep their schedules, health centers that also provide mental health care, and spaces for citizen participation and oversight. Only by reclaiming for citizens the territories that have been abandoned to illegality and organized crime can we gradually give childhood back this child and hundreds of others like him.