Julio César Arana

Julio César Arana del Águila, (1864–1952) was a Peruvian entrepreneur and politician. A major figure in the rubber industry in the upper Amazon basin, he is probably best known in the English-speaking world through Walt Hardenburg's 1909 articles in the British magazine Truth, accusing him of practices that amounted to a terroristic reign of slavery over the natives of the region. A company of which he was the general manager, the Peruvian Amazon Company, was investigated by a commission in 1910 on which Roger Casement served. He was appointed its liquidator in September 1911.[1] He later blamed the downfall on the British directors for ill supervision of the Peruvian staff,[2] of whom he was chief.

Julio César Arana del Águila. Estudio Courret. Lima, approx. 1912.

Arana became a senator for the Department of Loreto from 1922–26 and, as a result of the Salomon-Lozano Treaty, signed in Lima in 1927, Peru transferred his properties in the Putumayo to Colombia. He died at age 88, penniless, in a small house in Magdalena del Mar, near Lima.[3]

References

  1. "No. 28539". The London Gazette. 6 October 1911. p. 7306.
  2. "The Peruvian Amazon Company: No Return to Shareholders", The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1889 - 1931), Mar 20 1914. retr 2012 9 24 from http://trove.nla.gov.au
  3. Charles C. Mann (2011), 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created, Random House Digital, pp. 258–260, ISBN 978-0-307-59672-7
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