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Julio César Arana
Photo: Estudio Courret. Lima, c. 1912, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons13

Julio César Arana

Peruvian entrepreneur and politician

Julio César Arana del Águila (April 12, 1864 – September 7, 1952) was a Peruvian entrepreneur and politician.2

From Wikipedia’s article on Julio César Arana (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Born Apr 12, 1864, died Sep 9, 1952.1

About

A major figure in the rubber industry in the upper Amazon basin, he is infamously known in the English-speaking world through Walter E. Hardenburg's 1909 articles in the British magazine Truth, exposing his 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. He later blamed the downfall of the company on the British directors for neglecting to manage the Peruvian staff, of whom he was chief. Arana was the main perpetrator of the Putumayo genocide: where his company exploited and exhausted Indigenous populations to death, to extract rubber. Arana's enterprise also had operations along the Caqueta, Marañon, and Upper Purus Rivers.

Arana became a senator for the Department of Loreto from 1922 to 1926 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.

From Wikipedia’s article on Julio César Arana, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2

Companies

Early life and education

Julio César Arana was born to Martín Arana in Rioja, Peru, on April 12, 1864. The family was from Cajamarca, in the north of Peru and close to the Amazonian forests to the east. Martín Arana made a career out of making and selling straw hats in Rioja. Julio joined him at age nine and spent the next few years learning about the trade. At age 15, his father sent him to Cajamarca to learn bookkeeping and general business administration, rather than see his son go to war against Chile. After two years in Cajamarca, Julio ventured to the jungle, confident that he knew enough about business to take advantage of new opportunities. The rubber boom had just started to affect the Amazon, although it was years away from its peak.

Julio decided to move to the town of Yurimaguas, which was on the Huallaga River, a tributary of the Marañon River. From there, he was able to sell his father's hats in various towns of the Amazon basin. He believed he could make more money in the rubber trade, but he lacked the funds to invest in a business venture. In 1888, he married Eleanora Zumaeta; they had known each other as children in Rioja. He was able to secure some funding out of the convenient marriage and invited his new brother-in-law, Pablo Zumaeta, to join him in business. The two opened up a trading post in Tarapoto, which was a district rich in rubber and close to Yurimaguas. The very next year, they bought a portion of a rubber forest near Yurimaguas.

Arana and Zumaeta soon traveled to the Ceará region in Brazil, which had recently suffered a dust bowl and famine. They secured and hired twenty men, taking advantage of their destitute situation. These men would be the first debt peons of Arana, exploited for their labor. In 1889, Arana invited another brother-in-law, Abel Alarco, to join him at Iquitos, where they could set up business. Arana originally focused his business on peddling and transportation around Iquitos before becoming specifically interested in rubber forests in the Putumayo basin. Julio adopted the practices of the Colombians in the region, who enslaved indigenous people and exploited their labor to extract rubber.

From Wikipedia’s article on Julio César Arana (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Career

Occupation: slave trader, businessperson, politician.6 7

  • Date not recordedFounded Entre Rios3
  • Date not recordedFounded Peruvian Amazon Company4
  • Date not recordedMember of the Senate of Peru5

Personal life

  • BornApr 12, 1864, Rioja8
  • DiedSep 9, 1952, Lima9
  • CitizenshipPeru10

Sources

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