COVID-19 victims of violence

The Dateline series about the impact of controversial mass gathering rituals by indigenous communities in Peru will be stopped after a series of comments by the Ministry of Culture.

The project about the subject – which drew ire online for its alleged threats – has been called off because it was deemed too violent.

This project the Ministry of Culture said in a statement on Thursday adding it had received complaints of cruelty and violence being directed against protesters and taking strong legal action.

It also said it was canceling in Peru a mass gathering of indigenous shamans in the Apu Valley where bad practices against women and girls had been firmly established. Perus indigenous tribes whose identities are shrouded in mystery have often accused right-wing organizations of orchestrating a separatist uprising that caused decades of economic and political upheaval and left many without jobs.

The shamans are said to carry shaman beads or chakigues which allow followers to communicate with the spirits of ancestors who are absent or under attack.

Peru has experienced one of the worlds highest incidences of imported cases of the novel coronavirus with nearly 370 infections and 22 deaths from the virus with most linked to accused smugglers of illegal immigrants.

The indigenous community has claimed that shamans are connected to the spirits of departed ancestors imprisoned in a land temple by Perus former president Andres Guleno Branco who died in prison in 2010.

On Wednesday Ecuador announced the deportation of two activists with support of the Indigenous Peoples Trade Unions Network (CPAN) two of whom have been detained in connection with the persecution of protesters from Indigenous organizations. One had been arrested over his role in disrupting a land rights rally in 2018 to demand better pay and housing for indigenous people.

They are among about a dozen cases of suspected miners lawbreakers and armed fighters involved in a clash between security forces and guerrillas in the South American nation where armed groups including the ETA ETA. mx and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (EFE1) have killed more than 30000.

Perus Communist Party has sought to silence the indigenous movement including by placing epidemiological markers on buses in the Andean mountains that had originally been used for mass gathering exercises.

Local medical workers have also been targeted for hanging by the indigenous groups to remind them of the dangers of coming into contact with the symbol of a powerful shaman Chuaphtuo on poles used by ETA members for transport.

Speaking at a news conference Perus tourism minister pretender Luis Guillermo Lopez said the ritual destruction with sticks would be unacceptable. Noting that Peru will be the first country to ban the importation of everything the indigenous people holds sacred he said the government would issue an interim solution to pressure the country to convert forests to animal agriculture.