the Ashininka have been in contact with different cultures and situations, having

relations with such diverse groups as the Incas, Spanish conquerors and more recently,

highland colonists. From 1742 to 1755 Ashininka jointed the revolution led by Juan

Santos Atahuallpa that expelled the Spanish conquerors. In the early XVIII century,

during the rubber boom, the Ashininka, as well as other indigenous groups, were

persecuted and captured as a labor force. In 1965, the Ashininka were in contact with the

MIR (Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria) guerrillas (Rodriguez 1993, Rojas 1994,

Santos-Granero and Barclay 1995, Espinosa 1994, Yafiez 1998, Fernandez and Brown

2001). Since the 1970s, hundreds of colonists from the Andes have arrived to the Ene

river valley looking for land. These newcomers not only were a threat to the Ashininka

territorial security, but also were linked with the presence and action of terrorists and

drug dealers (Rodriguez 1993, Gagnon et al 1993, Rojas 1994, Espinosa 1994, Santos-

Granero and Barclay 1995, Fabian and Espinosa 1997, Yafiez 1998, Fernandez and

Brown 2001, CVR 2003).

 Indeed, during the last two decades of the 20th century, roughly seventy thousand

people were victims of heightened social violence in Peru. The Ashininka were one of

the most affected groups in this social conflict. Some ten thousand Ashininka were

displaced in the Ene, Tambo and Perene rivers, approximately six thousand people were

murdered, and another five thousand more were detained in Shining Path campsites.

During the conflict, all 32 Ashininka communities in the Ene river valley disappeared as

well as 15 communities in the Tambo river valley (CVR 2003).

 In 1997, the "Project of support of the resettlement of Ashininka communities in

the Ene River" was initiated to support the resettlement the displaced communities in the