Trabalho compulsório indígena na Amazônia do século XX nos relatos do Diário de Roger Casement

Abstract

This article seeks to address the exploitation of indigenous labor in the 20th century Amazon. It is an analysis of the reports in Roger Casement's diary, written during his trips to Brazil as British consul general in Putumayo, a border region of Brazil, Peru and Colombia. This expedition was initially intended to investigate illegal rubber extraction and the working conditions of British subjects hired in Barbados. However, Casement reported forced labor, killings and torture against indigenous peoples in service of the Peruvian Amazon Company. From this source, it is sought to understand dependencies, labor relations and the exploitation of indigenous labor in the functioning of the rubber extraction industry in various activities, it is argued that in this context there was a generalized naturalization of the exploitation of indigenous labor, and that the model of work identical to that of slavery remained alive in the most distant places of the region even in the 20th century, although historiography has paid little attention to indigenous work in the rubber economy in the Amazon.