Benjamin Saldaña Rocca

Benjamin Saldaña Rocca (1865–1912) was a distinguished Peruvian soldier and later journalist, mostly known for his role in exposing the Putumayo genocide which was perpetrated by Julio César Arana and the Peruvian Amazon Company.

Born in Lima, Saldaña distinguished himself as a soldier in the War of the Pacific, participating in battles such as San Juan, Miraflores, and San Pablo. After his military service, he founded several newspapers in Lima, including "El Fósforo," "La Pampa de Tebas," and "La Sotana," between 1899 and 1903. Around the age of 37, he relocated to Iquitos, where he established the newspapers "La Sanción" and "La Felpa." Through these publications, Saldaña courageously revealed the crimes perpetrated in the Putumayo region under Arana's company, advocating for justice and bringing international attention to the plight of the indigenous population. Early life Benjamin was born on 1865, in Lima. Early in his life, Saldaña gained some notoriety by distinguishing himself as a soldier. According to Luis Hernán Ramírez, during the War of the Pacific Saldaña Rocca fought at the battles of San Juan, Miraflores, and during battle of San Pablo in defense of Lima. Coincidentally, another future activist and critic of the Peruvian oligarchic government, Manuel González Prada fought at the battle of San Pablo in 1880. After leaving the Peruvian military, Saldaña went on to found three newspapers in Lima, with the names "El Fósforo," "La Pampa de Tebas" and "La Sotana" between the years 1899–1903. These newspapers were no longer active by the time he moved to Iquitos around the age of 37.

In Iquitos Saldaña filed a criminal petition against eighteen members of the Peruvian Amazon Company on August 9, 1907. Within the petition he included details of horrific acts of cruelty and barbarism against the indigenous population who collected rubber for the company in the Putumayo. One incident committed at the Ultimo Retiro station implicated a manager named Argaluza with the death of a native woman. Argaluza ordered the Barbadian employees Stanley Lewis and Ernesto Siobers to administer 155 stripes after accusing the woman of sleeping with another young man.

On August 22, after only receiving silence from the Iquitos courts, Saldaña published the first issue of La Sancion, which can translate to "The Castigation." The first issue made a public attack against Arana and his company by detailing some of the atrocities occurring within the Putumayo region. Saldaña relayed his intentions and resolve in the August 22 issue, stating: “Enough of mysteries and cover-ups... I will fight undaunted and without respite, scorning the switchblade of the assassin and the pistol of the thug.” The publication promised the exposing and denouncement of those committing crimes in the region, and also included content from the original criminal petition that was filed.

Within this first issue, Saldaña included a letter from Julio Muriedas, who worked for Arana at Matanzas under the manager Armando Normand. Muriedas relayed that Normand applied 200 whip lashes or even more to the Natives when they did not meet the rubber quota he required. At other times, when the Native flees because they will not meet their rubber quota, Normand has the Native's children suspended by their hands and feet before applying fire. This is done so the children will expose where their fathers have hidden. Muriedas also stated "On more than one occasion, always for lack of weight of the rubber, the Indians are shot, or their arms and legs are cut off with machetes and the body is thrown around the house; and more than once the repugnant spectacle of dogs dragging about the arms or legs of one of these unfortunates has been witnessed." This deposition further relayed "another scene, excessively inhuman and repugnant" detailing the sexual abuse of a woman named Matilde by employees of the rubber company, and specifically Bartolomé Zumaeta. Details about the flagellations as well as the killing of multiple members of the Yaquebuas and Nuisayes tribes, some of whom were captains, were included in this letter. According to Julio Murieda, "These are the actual deeds that are carried out constantly in the Putumayo, and for the lack of one kilogram in the weight of their quota of rubber they murder, mutilate, and torture the people."

August 31, 1907 saw the first issue of La Felpa, which was another publication started by Saldaña Rocca, which can translate to "The Scolding." This was a shorter newspaper containing four pagers, published every two weeks, and contained an illustration or political cartoon to further drive its point. La Felpa's first issue ran with the headline "The Crimes of the Putumayo: Flagellations, Mutilations, Tortures, and Target Practice," and depicted some of the ways in which Natives were being maltreated in the Putumayo. The newspaper included a few names of Peruvian Amazon Company employees connected linked to the events depicted in La Felpa's first article, two of which include José Innocente Fonseca shown in "Target Practice" and Aquiléo Torres in "Tortures". The issue published by La Felpa on January 5, 1908 included a list of the principal criminals, which were the chiefs of sections. These names include Armando Normand, José Innocente Fonseca, Abelardo Agüero, Augusto Jiménez Seminario, Arístides Rodríguez, Aurelio Rodríguez, Alfredo Montt, Fidel Velarde, Carlos Miranda, and Andrés O’Donnell.

Until the end of La Felpa's operation, Arana and his enterprise continued to be the publication's centerspread. On multiple occasions Arana was portrayed as a devil, or was shown surrounded by skulls. One publication of La Felpa dubbed Arana as "Genio de mal" which translates to "Genius of evil".Saldaña defended the use of caricatures in his newspapers by stating it had two points: “the first is that the caricature is the pathetic relationship with the accomplished fact, and second, because, it more radically corrects the offender by exposing him to the crime in fragrant.”

The public reaction to the revelations included in Paternoster's article led to the London directors of the Peruvian Amazon Company sending an investigatory commission to the Putumayo in 1910. The British Foreign Office took the opportunity to attach Roger Casement to the commission, who had previously exposed atrocities occurring in the Congo Free State in the pursuit of rubber extraction. Documents from Benjamin Saldaña and Walter Hardenburg were used by Casement for background information while he was on the commission. Casement referred to this body of work as his "Police News" and cross referenced these documents at times when he met a criminal whose name he recognized.

The work started by Saldaña Rocca and continued by others, eventually led to multiple arrest warrants issued against employees of the Peruvian Amazon Company. The first issue of these took place on April 7, 1911 and charged 27 employees with the "crime of flogging and flaying thirty Ocainas Indians and then burning them alive." The next wave of warrants were issued against 215 employees of the La Chorrera branch, where the majority of crimes attested to in the Saldaña and Hardenburg depositions took place. The last round of warrants were issued against Pablo Zumaeta and Victor Macedo. Most of these criminals were never arrested, and Zumaeta was even elected mayor of Iquitos in 1912,1914, and later between 1922 and 1923.

Illustration of flogging in the Putumayo, published by La Felpa.

Saldaña reportedly lived poor and destitute in Lima before his murder at the age of 52 on April 17, 1912. On July 8, 1912, an anti-Arana newspaper named La Presna published an article that was partially an obituary, and part editorial which further denounced Arana. One sentence from the paper stated "that humble defender of Right and Humanity had to fly from Loreto and died miserably in a wretched hole in order that he should not in his turn be the victim of the criminal exploiters of that river." La Presna also insinuated that the Putumayo issue was not a challenge to Peruvian patriotism, which was suggested by Arana's defenders, but instead that it was a "great National shame."

With the help of Benjamin Saldaña's work, Walter Ernest Hardenburg collected twenty testimonials from people that had worked in the Putumayo. Eventually in December 1912, these accounts were published in "The Putumayo, the Devil's Paradise." The public outcry that originated from the work of Saldaña, Hardenburg, Paternoster, and Roger Casement helped play a role in the Peruvian Amazon Company's liquidation, which occurred in 1913. Unfortunately for the Putumayo Natives, Julio César Arana as well as a number of his administrators never faced justice. Arana and Miguel S. Loayza retained property in the region, which effectively translated into them keeping control over their Native work force.

Researcher and writer Mario Vargas Llosa stated that "There is no way to find testimonies of the last years of Benjamin Saldaña Rocca in Lima." The Bodleian Library, at Oxford retains a mostly complete set of Saldaña's La Felpa and La Sancion newspapers, archived as N.2343 b.10.