I have also seen him commit another most barbarous crime. This was on the 11th of July, 1907, at about 4 p.m. The victim was a poor Indian woman whom he had ordered to serve as a concubine for one of his adjutants. The woman refused to obey this order as she already had an Indian husband. This was sufficient for Norman to cut off her legs and leave her in a field near the house, where she remained a night and a day, until he himself went out to finish her with his Mauser revolver.
For the same reason Norman suspended another Indian woman from four stakes by her hands and feet, and, after giving her one hundred lashes, he took a Peruvian flag, which happened to be handy, and tearing it to pieces and sousing it with kerosene he wound it around her feet and set fire to it. As soon as the woman started to run off, crazed with the awful agony, he grasped his Mauser and practised target-shooting with her until he brought her down.
To convince oneself of the truth of these statements, it is sufficient to approach the neighbourhood of Matanzas, for on all sides one sees the ground sown with skulls and other human remains. If I were to relate all the crimes I have seen committed in this devilish Putumayo, it would be nothing less than writing a whole book. I will, however, give particulars of the doings of some other chiefs, no less criminal than the bloodthirsty Norman.
After three months I applied for a transfer from this horrible depot. This application was granted, and they sent me to the depot known as La Sabana, where I found as chief Arístides Rodríguez. About two weeks after my arrival at this place Rodríguez had four Indians of the Recígaros tribe brought in. As soon as they arrived he asked them why they had not brought any rubber, and the unfortunates, fearful of what awaited them, lowered their humble glances to the ground and did not answer a word. Then Arístides ordered one of his secretaries, who to-day walks freely with him about the streets of Iquitos, to take four more employees and to cut off the heads of those Indians and burn them, which order was at once carried out at the side of the house.
Shortly after this Rodríguez went out in charge of a commission of fifty men to a point called Cahuinarí. Once there, he proceeded to murder a hundred and fifty Indians, men, women, and children. These murders were carried out with rifles and machetes. Afterwards they arrived at some Indian houses and fired them by order of Rodríguez. In these houses there were at least forty families, according to an individual who accompanied Rodríguez, who went in first to ascertain what Indians there were inside. Here a most horrible spectacle was witnessed, and it was appalling to hear the groans and laments of the Indians enwrapped in the devouring flames of the fire.
About twenty days after this occurrence Rodríguez started for Santa Catalina, and on the journey, he met four Indians of the Maynanes tribe, who were en route to put themselves at his service. Rodríguez, instead of receiving them, placed his carbine to his shoulder and shot them to death.
This infamous agent has a brother[120], who is chief of Santa Catalina, called Aurelio Rodríguez, a wretch no less criminal than his brother, for in the month of March of the year 1908, when I was at Santa Catalina, a commission arrived, bringing four Indians in chains. This Aurelio Rodríguez then remarked that he felt anxious to test his shooting, and, without more ado, took his carbine and began to shoot at those poor Indians, with the result that in a few minutes they fell shot to death; afterwards he had them burned.
After all these events I made all possible exertions to get away from this awful region, and, after some work, I succeeded in getting transferred to El Encanto, where another monster, Miguel S. Loayza, is chief. On one occasion this other repugnant criminal gave orders to his confidential secretary, the negro, King, to go with several other employees and take a poor Colombian, whose name I do not now recall, prisoner. As soon as they brought him to El Encanto, Loayza had him assassinated by the negro, King, and afterwards thrown into the river.
All these deeds occur with great frequency in the Putumayo. Would to God that the weight of justice would fall over this awful region!
For Genaro Caporo,
José Antonio.