🔗 Share this article

The resident Tomas Anez Dos Santos was laboring in a small open space far in the Peruvian jungle when he noticed movements coming closer through the dense forest.

He realized he was encircled, and stood still.

“A single individual was standing, directing with an arrow,” he recalls. “Somehow he became aware of my presence and I began to run.”

He found himself face to face the Mashco Piro. For a long time, Tomas—dwelling in the tiny community of Nueva Oceania—had been virtually a neighbour to these wandering individuals, who shun engagement with outsiders.

An updated report from a human rights organization claims remain no fewer than 196 described as “remote communities” in existence in the world. The Mashco Piro is considered to be the most numerous. The report claims half of these communities may be eliminated in the next decade unless authorities don't do more actions to defend them.

The report asserts the most significant threats come from deforestation, mining or drilling for oil. Isolated tribes are extremely susceptible to basic sickness—consequently, the report states a danger is posed by interaction with proselytizers and social media influencers looking for clicks.

Lately, members of the tribe have been appearing to Nueva Oceania increasingly, according to residents.

Nueva Oceania is a fishing hamlet of several households, perched atop on the banks of the local river in the center of the Peruvian Amazon, 10 hours from the closest town by canoe.

This region is not classified as a protected zone for uncontacted groups, and timber firms work here.

Tomas says that, on occasion, the sound of industrial tools can be detected around the clock, and the community are witnessing their forest damaged and destroyed.

Within the village, inhabitants state they are torn. They dread the projectiles but they also possess strong regard for their “relatives” who live in the woodland and desire to safeguard them.

“Permit them to live as they live, we are unable to change their culture. For this reason we preserve our separation,” states Tomas.

The people in Nueva Oceania are concerned about the damage to the tribe's survival, the risk of aggression and the chance that deforestation crews might subject the Mashco Piro to sicknesses they have no resistance to.

At the time in the community, the tribe made themselves known again. A young mother, a young mother with a two-year-old girl, was in the woodland collecting food when she noticed them.

“There were calls, shouts from others, numerous of them. As if there was a crowd shouting,” she told us.

It was the first instance she had met the tribe and she escaped. An hour later, her head was continually racing from fear.

“Because operate timber workers and firms cutting down the forest they're running away, perhaps out of fear and they arrive near us,” she explained. “It is unclear what their response may be to us. This is what terrifies me.”

In 2022, a pair of timber workers were confronted by the group while fishing. A single person was struck by an bow to the stomach. He survived, but the other man was discovered dead after several days with multiple arrow wounds in his physique.

The administration follows a policy of avoiding interaction with isolated people, rendering it illegal to initiate contact with them.

This approach began in Brazil following many years of campaigning by community representatives, who saw that initial interaction with isolated people resulted to whole populations being eliminated by sickness, poverty and starvation.

During the 1980s, when the Nahau people in Peru first encountered with the broader society, half of their people perished within a matter of years. A decade later, the Muruhanua people suffered the identical outcome.

“Remote tribes are very vulnerable—from a disease perspective, any exposure could transmit illnesses, and even the most common illnesses may decimate them,” states a representative from a local advocacy organization. “Culturally too, any contact or intrusion could be extremely detrimental to their life and well-being as a community.”

For those living nearby of {