Armando Normand

Armando Normand was born in Cochabamba, Bolivia, in around 1880.{{cite journal |last1=MacQueen |first1=Peter |last2= Normand |first2=Armando |title=A Criminal's Life Story: The Career of Armando Normand |journal=The National Magazine: An Illustrated American Monthly|issue=April to September 1913 |date=September 1913 |volume=38 |page=942 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0Y7NAAAAMAAJ&q=armando+normand&pg=PA942 |access-date=30 June 2023}} It is believed he spent the first twenty years of his life in and around Cochabamba. The little information about Normand's early life comes from an interview conducted by Peter MacQueen in 1913, during which Normand said:

{{blockquote |text= Our family was one of the first in the Province of Cochabamba, and I was afforded excellent opportunities for securing an education. After graduating from the Seminario in my native city, I spent two years studying law, but finally abandoned [the] course and went to the Argentine. I attended the National School of Commerce in Buenos Ayres and graduated from that institution as a public accountant. Altogether I remained about two and one-half years in Buenos Ayres. In 1903 I went to London and studied for a few months at the Pitman School in Russell Square in order to improve my knowledge of bookkeeping and modern business.}}

Roger Casement wrote that he had seen two of Normand's academic certificates, including one from the London School of Book-keepers dated 1904, which qualified Normand as a bookkeeper.{{sfn|Goodman|2009|p=122}}{{sfn|Casement|1997|p=256}}

While in London, Normand became friends with the Bolivian minister {{ill|Avelino Aramayo|es}} and through this connection he became acquainted with influential people from Peru and Bolivia. Normand left London in 1904 and travelled to Pará, Brazil, with a letter of introduction to Carlos Larrañaga, the regional manager for Suárez Hermanos, a famous rubber firm in Bolivia.{{cite journal |last1=MacQueen |first1=Peter |last2= Normand |first2=Armando |title=A Criminal's Life Story: The Career of Armando Normand |journal=The National Magazine: An Illustrated American Monthly|issue=April to September 1913 |volume=38 |date=September 1913 |pages=942–943 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0Y7NAAAAMAAJ&q=armando+normand&pg=PA942 |access-date=30 June 2023}} Because there were no open positions at the firm, Larrañaga advised Normand to travel to Manaus, and Larrañaga also wrote letters of introduction for Normand to Julio César Arana, owner of J. C. Arana and Hermanos Company. Arana's company hired Normand, assigning him as an interpreter on a mission to hire workers in Barbados.{{harvnb|Slavery in Peru|1913|p=229}}{{sfn|Hardenburg|1912|p=275}} This mission managed to contract around thirty five Barbadians{{efn|In 1913, Normand claimed that there were thirty six Barbadian men hired on this mission, however Roger Casement's information in 1910 stated there were thirty Barbadian men and five women contracted by this mission.{{sfn|Slavery in Peru|1913|p=225}}}} to work on the Igaraparana River, a tributary of the Putumayo River.{{sfn|Slavery in Peru|1913|p=235,248-249}}

In November 1904, Normand arrived at La Chorrera with the first contingent of Barbadian men,{{sfn|Slavery in Peru|1913|p=229,333}} and was commissioned with those men to set up a settlement near the Caqueta River and engage in "trade relations" with Andoque tribespeople.{{sfn|Hardenburg|1912|p=275}}{{sfn|Slavery in Peru|1913|p=229}}{{efn|The Andoques people were situated between the Igaraparana River and the Caqueta River. Most of the Andoque people lived closer to the Caqueta River than towards the Igaraparana.{{sfn|Slavery in Peru|1913|p=229}} The Barbadian Westerman Leavine stated that the expedition to establish Matanzas left La Chorrera on November 17, 1904.{{sfn|Casement|1997|p=260}}}} The group was led by a Colombian named Ramon Sanchez, they established a station that became known as Matanzas.{{efn|Augustus Walcott, one of the Barbadian men, provided a deposition to Roger Casement in 1910. Walcott mentioned that he participated in building the first "house" at Matanzas. One day, a group of sixteen indigenous people, which were chained, were brought to the construction site "to help build the house."{{sfn|Slavery in Peru|1913|p=371}}}} Shortly after the construction of a house, the group began correrias, or slave raids,{{efn|Slavery was abolished in Peru in 1854, however debt peonage was a legal practice used by Arana's firm to keep indigenous people in captivity during Normand's employment in the Putumayo.{{sfn|Goodman|2009|p=37}}{{sfn|Slavery in Peru|1913|p=110}}}} and what Roger Casement referred to as "punitive expeditions". The J.C. Arana y Hermanos agents at Matanzas were armed with firearms to hunt indigenous people and they intended to force those people to collect rubber.{{sfn|Slavery in Peru|1913|p=229-230}}{{sfn|Hardenburg|1912|p=275}}{{cite journal |last1=MacQueen |first1=Peter |last2= Normand |first2=Armando |title=A Criminal's Life Story: The Career of Armando Normand |journal=The National Magazine: An Illustrated American Monthly|issue=April to September 1913 |date=September 1913 |volume=38 |pages=943–944|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0Y7NAAAAMAAJ&q=armando+normand&pg=PA942 |access-date=30 June 2023}} In 1905, Normand was made co-manager of the Matanzas station after the dismissal of Sanchez for physically abusing the Barbadian men, and in 1906, Normand became the chief manager of Matanzas.{{sfn|Slavery in Peru|1913|p=230,339-340,405}}

File:Matanzas rubber station, Putumayo.jpg

By 1907, Normand and his employer Arana were subjects of complaints made by Benjamin Saldaña Rocca, a journalist from Iquitos who was determined to hold them responsible for their crimes.{{cite book |last1=Goodman |first1=Jordan |title=The Devil and Mr. Casement: One Man's Battle for Human Rights in South America's Heart of Darkness |date=16 February 2010 |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |location=Putumayo |isbn=978-1429936392 |pages=30, 44, 45 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ixfR9QpXBEwC&q=sancion |access-date=22 July 2023}}{{sfn|Hardenburg|1912|p=217,234}} Saldaña used statements and first-hand accounts from former workers of the rubber stations, publishing them in La Felpa and La Sancion, two small newspapers from Iquitos.{{sfnm|Goodman|2009|1pp=45, 46|Slavery in Peru|1913|2p=189}}{{sfn|Hardenburg|1912|p=217, 226, 229, 231, 234}} For three years before Casement's investigation, Normand's crimes were well known in Peru.{{sfn|Hardenburg|1912|p=234,303}} According to Casement's report:

{{Blockquote |text=It was alleged, and I am convinced with truth, that during the period of close on six years Normand had controlled the Andokes Indians he had directly killed 'many hundreds' of those Indians—men, women, and children. The indirect deaths due to starvation, floggings, exposure, and hardship of various kinds in collecting rubber or transferring it from Andokes down to Chorrera must have accounted for a still larger number. Señor Tizon told me that 'hundreds' of Indians perished in the compulsory carriage of the rubber from the more distant sections down to La Chorrera. No food is given by the company to these unfortunate people on these forced marches, which, on an average, take place three times a year. I witnessed one such march, on a small scale ... {{sfn|Hardenburg|1912|p=302}}{{efn|Casement witnessed around 200 Andoke people marching their loads of rubber from Matanzas to La Chorrera in 1910.{{sfn|Casement|2003|p=178}}}}}}

File:Illustration on the first issue of 'LA FELPA'.jpg

Enslaved locals were expected to gather between {{convert|50|and|100|kg|lbs|abbr=on}} of rubber in a fabrico depending on their assigned quota.{{cite web |last1=Goodman |first1=Jordan |title=Mr Casement goes to Washington:The Politics of the Putumayo Photographs |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/339235655 |website=Revistas |access-date=21 July 2023}}{{sfn|Slavery in Peru|1913|p=286-287,356}} The indigenous people marched along with their loads of rubber to Matanzas from areas in the forest that were, in some cases, a ten-to-twelve hours distance by foot.{{sfn|Hardenburg|1912|p=302}} The land route to deliver rubber from Matanzas to La Chorrera was estimated by Casement to be {{convert|70|miles|km|abbr=out|order=flip}}, and could take "four to five days of hard marching" to traverse by the Barbadian men, which escorted the indigenous workers.{{sfn|Hardenburg|1912|p=302}}{{sfn|Slavery in Peru|1913|p=230}}

Around 1907, a small steamship was launched on the Igaraparana River above the waterfall of La Chorrera, shortening the distance that indigenous people entrapped at Matanzas had to travel in order to deliver rubber to La Chorrera.{{sfn|Hardenburg|1912|p=302}}{{sfn|Slavery in Peru|1913|p=230}}{{efn|This may have been the steamship Veloz, which was stationed on the Igaraparana River above La Chorrera.{{sfn|Slavery in Peru|1913|p=412}}}} From Matanzas, they were to travel to Entre Rios, a two-day walk, and then to a place named Puerto Peruano, which was around {{convert|40|miles|km|abbr=on|order=flip}} or more from Matanzas, with little to no food.{{sfn|Casement|1997|p=267,277}}{{sfn|Hardenburg|1912|p=303}}{{sfn|Slavery in Peru|1913|p=266-267}} At Puerto Peruano, the rubber carried by the indigenous people was then loaded onto a boat and shipped to La Chorrera.{{sfn|Hardenburg|1912|p=302}} In 1910, Casement estimated that over the course of the whole march, natives would walk {{convert|60|miles|km|abbr=out|order=flip}} or more to deliver rubber to La Chorrera and he stated the path was "one of the worst imaginable".{{sfn|Hardenburg|1912|p=302}}{{sfn|Slavery in Peru|1913|p=266}} These marches from Matanzas to La Chorrera usually occurred twice in year, after a collection period referred to as a fabrico. A fabrico referred to the season that rubber was extracted, this time period could last between 75 and 100 days.{{sfn|Casement|1997|p=13,14,268}}{{sfn|Slavery in Peru|1913|p=284,287}}{{efn|Casement wrote "At Matanzas the weight of a full-grown man's 'fabrico' was even up to 80-100 kilograms, more than could be carried by a single individual. In such a case the Indian would have his wife and children to help in carrying it down to Puerto Peruano for shipment to La Chorrera."{{sfn|Slavery in Peru|1913|p=286-287}}}}

When Normand became the station manager in 1906, for every {{cvt|15|kg}} of rubber collected by enslaved indigenous people, he received three soles.{{cite journal |last1=MacQueen |first1=Peter |last2= Normand |first2=Armando |title=A Criminal's Life Story: The Career of Armando Normand |journal=The National Magazine: An Illustrated American Monthly|issue=April to September 1913 |date=September 1913 |volume=38 |page=944 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0Y7NAAAAMAAJ&q=armando+normand&pg=PA942 |access-date=30 June 2023}} At the time of Casement's visit in 1910, Normand was making around 20 soles for every {{cvt|15|kg}} of rubber,{{cite book |last1=Casement |first1=Roger |title=The Amazon Journal of Roger Casement |date=2009 |page=293 |publisher=Anaconda Editions |isbn=9781901990058 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yjwM99dulz4C}} which was 20% of the station's generated profit.{{sfn|Slavery in Peru|1913|p=411}}{{cite book |title=Parliamentary Papers, Volume 68 |date=1913 |publisher=Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons |location=Peru / Colombia |page=140 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uUk6AQAAIAAJ&q=%22armando+normand%22+%22%22&pg=RA24-PA31 |access-date=21 July 2023}} The manager of La Chorrera told Casement the company owed Normand 18,000 soles before a harvest of rubber in 1910—around £1,800—and Casement believed that Normand would get paid £300 for that collection period based on the output of Matanzas. According to Normand in 1910, 120 men, who could annually bring in around {{cvt|16800|kg}} of rubber, were being forced to work at the Matanzas station.{{sfn|Casement|1997|p=293}} The number of people kept captive to work at Matanzas prior to Casement's visit is unknown, however the information given the American Consul in Iquitos, claimed that there were 5,000 indigenous people dedicated to extracting rubber for the Matanzas station in 1907.{{sfn|Slavery in Peru|1913|p=112}} The manager at La Chorrera, Juan A. Tizón, also told Casement the company had been running the Matanza station at a loss for a few years.{{cite book |last1=Casement |first1=Roger |title=The Amazon Journal of Roger Casement |date=2009 |page=263 |publisher=Anaconda Editions |isbn=9781901990058 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yjwM99dulz4C}}

After meeting Armando Normand in 1910, Roger Casement wrote:

{{blockquote |he is the ablest of these scoundrels we have met yet, and I should say far the most dangerous. The others were murderous maniacs mostly, or rough, cruel ignorant men ... This is an educated man of a sort, who has lived long in London, knows the meaning of his crimes and their true aspect in all civilized eyes.{{sfn|Goodman|2009|p=124}}}}

Normand left the company a month or two after Casement's visit; he had requested to separate from the firm in a letter the previous year.{{cite journal |last1=MacQueen |first1=Peter |last2= Normand |first2=Armando |title=A Criminal's Life Story: The Career of Armando Normand |journal=The National Magazine: An Illustrated American Monthly|issue=April to September 1913 |date=September 1913 |volume=38 |page=946 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0Y7NAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22armando+normand%22+%22macqueen%22&pg=PA942 |access-date=22 July 2023}} According to Normand, at the time, he was "often ill and had symptoms of the dread beri-beri". When Victor Macedo, the general manager at La Chorrera, heard about Normand's request for resignation, he asked Normand to stay longer at the Matanzas station because they had no one to replace him. When British consul George Mitchell and American consul Stuart J. Fuller visited the Putumayo in October 1912, they visited every plantation where atrocities had been reported except for Abisinia and Matanzas. By then, the Matanzas plantation was completely abandoned.{{cite book |title=Álbum de Fotografías: Viaje de la Comisión Consular al Río Putumayo y Afluentes |date=2013 |publisher=IWGIA |page=22 |url=https://www.iwgia.org/es/recursos/publicaciones/317-libros/3121-lbum-de-fotografas-viaje-de-la-comisin-consular-al-ro-putumayo-y-afluentes.html}}

Armando Normand committed numerous crimes in the Putumayo River basin, which members of the Peruvian Amazon Company witnessed.{{sfn|Hardenburg|1912|p=331}} Several witnesses who came forward include {{ill|Roso España|es}},{{sfn|Hardenburg|1912|p=221}} {{ill|Marcial Gorries|es}},{{sfn|Hardenburg|1912|p=234-237}}{{sfn|Casement|1997|p=225}} {{ill|Genaro Caporo|es}}{{sfn|Hardenburg|1912|p=301}} and Barbadians {{ill|Westerman Levine|es}}{{sfn|Hardenburg|1912|p=237}}{{ill|Frederick Bishop (Barbadian)|es|Frederick Bishop}}{{sfn|Hardenburg|1912|p=313}}{{sfn|Goodman|2009|pp=103, 104}} and {{ill|Joshua Dyall|es}}.{{sfn|Casement|1997|p=376}}{{cite book |last1=Paternoster |first1=Sidney |title=The Lords of the Devil's Paradise |date=1913 |publisher=S. Paul & Company |page=108 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_nTXAAAAMAAJ&q=dyall&pg=PA9 |access-date=21 July 2023}} Some of these first-hand accounts were used as evidence in the La Sancion and La Felpa{{sfn|Hardenburg|1912|p=216-217,221,226,234}} publications that exposed the company in Peru, Roger Casement's report and an extensive report released by the United States relating to slavery in Peru.{{sfn|Slavery in Peru|1913|p=358}}

Judge Carlos A. Valcárcel initiated an investigative commission in 1911 to find new information;{{sfn|Valcárcel|2004|p=1-9}} the first-hand accounts from ex-employees who worked under Normand make up the majority of the 'Andoques' chapter in his book El proceso del Putumayo y sus secretos inauditos.{{sfn|Valcárcel|2004|p=159-170}} Judge Rómulo Paredes conducted the actual investigation around La Chorrera and Matanzas, he collected physical evidence and included numerous eyewitness accounts in his 3,000-page manuscript relating to the atrocities.{{sfn|Casement|2003|pp=708-709}}{{sfn|Hardenburg|1912|p=42}} In 1911, Paredes described Matanzas as "completely annihalted and almost extinguished".{{sfn|Casement|2003|p=708}}

File:“Two Andoke boys. They had just arrived with their loads of rubber. Casement mentions that “this tribe, once numerous, is now reduced all told to probably 150 persons, murdered by Armando Normand”.jpg

Normand starved the indigenous people under his control, giving them no food and little-to-no time to cultivate food.{{sfn|Slavery in Peru|1913|p=265}}{{cite book |last1=Casement |first1=Roger |title=The Amazon Journal of Roger Casement |date=2000 |publisher=Anaconda Editions |location=Peru / Colombia |isbn=1901990001 |page=424 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yjwM99dulz4C&q=starvation |access-date=22 July 2023}}{{sfn|Hardenburg|1912|p=302}} On occasion, Normand used starvation until death as a means of capital punishment.{{sfn|Valcárcel|2004|p=165}}{{efn|Ildefonso Fachin, a Peruvian Amazon Company employee and deponent to judge Paredes, claimed that Normand had cut down crop fields in order to starve the indigenous people that he could not capture.{{sfn|Valcárcel|2004|p=177}}}}

Near the end of 1904 or the beginning of 1905, Augustus Walcott was physically abused by Normand and Ramon Sanchez. Normand had Walcott "hung up by his arms tied behind his back for a very long time, and beaten with swords or machetes."{{sfn|Casement|1997|p=345}}{{sfn|Slavery in Peru|1913|p=373}} Clifford Quintin was also abused by Normand on two separate occasions. {{efn|This punishment was administered over a dispute when Quintin was trying to barter food from an indigenous woman. The first punishment administered to Quintin was carried out in a similar manner to Normand's treatment of Walcott, on the second occasion Quintin was beaten by Normand and Ursenio Bucelli.{{sfn|Slavery in Peru|1913|p=393}}}} The scarring from Normand’s flagellation of Walcott was shown to Roger Casement in 1910.{{sfn|Slavery in Peru|1913|p=393}} Another Barbadian named Percy, or James Francis was also tied up and flogged by swords under Sanchez's orders, however there is very little information regarding that incident.{{sfn|Slavery in Peru|1913|p=333,373,393}}

The first issue of Benjamin Saldaña Rocca's newspaper La Sancion contained an account from Julio Muriedas, who worked under Normand. Muriedas stated Normand administered 200 or more whiplashes his enslaved workers did not meet a weight quota of rubber.{{sfn|Slavery in Peru|1913|p=353}}{{sfn|A catalogue of crime|1912|p=83}} When the indigenous people tried to flee, J.C. Arana y Hermanos agents took their children and suspended them by their hands as well as feet before torturing them with fire with the intention of extracting information that would expose indigenous families' hiding places.{{sfn|Hardenburg|1912|p=226,228}}{{sfn|A catalogue of crime|1912|p=83}}{{efn|The Barbadian Westerman Leavine later corroborated this claim in a deposition to Roger Casement. Leavine stated that punishment was administered often, as well as the burning of children in order to coerce them to reveal the locations of their relatives.{{sfn|Slavery in Peru|1913|p=353}}}}

File:Flogging of a Putumayo native, carried out by the employees of Julio César Arana.jpg

Sidney Morris was at Andokes for three or four months until he became ill. He was employed there on correrias, and stated that while he did not flog people there, he witnessed a number of flagellations while under Normand's management. Morris stated that Normand would administer the first couple of lashes before handing the whip to another employee to continue the punishment.{{sfn|Slavery in Peru|1913|p=364}} "They [the indigenous] were flogged badly, men and women and children. He saw a boy, a small boy, flogged to death..."{{efn|"He saw a girl flogged to death as well as the small boy."{{sfn|Slavery in Peru|1913|p=364}}}} Morris stated some of the indigenous men who were flogged at Matanzas also perished from their wounds. He also witnessed the shooting of multiple indigenous people, and the immolation, then shooting of one native man that Normand had caught.{{sfn|Slavery in Peru|1913|p=365}} Morris reported that he knew of another native that Normand had ordered to be executed by burning to death. Morris stated that while he didn't witness this killing, he heard Normand give the order and he also saw the Muchachos de Confianza making preparations for the fire.{{sfn|Slavery in Peru|1913|p=365}} {{efn|Morris left Matanzas in May of 1906, and returned in May of 1909 after four Peruvian Amazon Company employees had been killed by rebellious muchachos de confianzas.{{efn|See The Amazon Journal of Roger Casement page 266 for a description of the "great Caqueta Rebellion" that resulted in the deaths of four employees.{{sfn|Casement|1997|p=266}}}} He stayed in the area for two months hunting down the indigenous people that had killed the employees and taken their weapons.{{sfn|Slavery in Peru|1913|p=366}}}}

In January 1907, Normand led an attack against employees of Urbano Gutierrez, a Colombian rubber firm, which was attempting to establish an outpost near the Caqueta River.{{sfn|Hardenburg|1912|p=223}}{{sfn|Slavery in Peru|1913|p=351}}{{sfn|Olarte Camacho|1911|p=112}} A group of twenty Peruvians, along with two Barbadians,{{sfn|Olarte Camacho|1911|p=112}}{{sfn|Hardenburg|1912|p=222}}{{efn|These two Barbadians were Westerman Leavine and Donald Francis. Normand attempted to bribe Leavine with an incentive to not give a deposition to Casement. Francis admitted to Casement that Macedo had offered him a bribe as well as threatened to have Francis shot if he testified against Macedo. Casement regarded Francis as an unreliable witness for this reason.{{sfn|Slavery in Peru|1913|p=265,310,351}}}} came across eight people that were separated from the main group of Colombians, and killed two while taking the rest as prisoners. The Peruvians sent a letter to Normand, who arrived three days later with another group of subordinates. Normand interrogated the prisoners and he ordered the chief of these Colombians, Felipe Cabrera, to send a message to his partner José de la Paz Gutiérrez to surrender all of the fire arms his group had.{{sfn|Hardenburg|1912|p=222}}{{sfn|Olarte Camacho|1911|p=112}} Roso España was a Colombian employed by Urbano Gutierrez and he provided an eyewitness account for this raid led by Normand.{{sfn|Slavery in Peru|1913|p=350}}{{sfn|Hardenburg|1912|p=223}} España claimed that after the Colombians surrendered their firearms, the Peruvians began killing the indigenous people around Urbano Gutierrez's settlement.{{sfn|Hardenburg|1912|p=223}}{{sfn|Olarte Camacho|1911|p=113}}

España also declared that after killing twenty-five people, Normand's group herded the elderly people into the canoes the Colombians had brought, once in the middle of the river, all of the people that were loaded onto the canoes were shot. Afterwards, España stated, the heads of children were rammed down into holes that were dug for the support beams of a house. {{sfn|Hardenburg|1912|p=223}}{{sfn|Olarte Camacho|1911|p=112-113}} Westerman Leavine reported that he saw one child killed this way.{{sfn|Slavery in Peru|1913|p=353}} The Colombians, along with several indigenous prisoners, were marched to Matanzas by the group of Peruvians. According to España, four indigenous people, including one chief that was taken prisoner during this event, were "clubbed to death" a short distance from the settlement of Matanzas.{{sfn|Hardenburg|1912|p=223}}{{efn|The information in Las Crueldades en el Putumayo y en el Caqueta stated that these people were killed by a garrote instead of being "clubbed to death" as stated in The Devil's Paradise.{{sfn|Olarte Camacho|1911|p=113}}{{sfn|Hardenburg|1912|p=223}}}} Leavine stated that while he did not witness the killing of these four natives, he had heard of this incident around the time it had occurred. Leavine's deposition to Casement in 1910 corroborated most of España's statement.{{sfn|Slavery in Peru|1913|p=351}} Eight of the Colombian prisoners were taken to La Chorrera and later they were abandoned on a canoe by employees of Arana's firm while in transit to Iquitos, near the Peruvian border with Brazil. Felipe Cabrera, Jose de la Paz Gutiérrez and Aquiléo Torres were kept as prisoners and imprisoned by members of Arana's company with the intention of pressuring them into employment.{{sfn|Slavery in Peru|1913|p=275}}{{sfn|Hardenburg|1912|p=224}}

Westerman Leavine and Genaro Caporo both gave information relating to the murder of three elderly people and their two adult daughters in the middle of 1907.{{sfn|Hardenburg|1912|p=252,331}} Normand personally killed these five people and their bodies were eaten by the dogs he trained.{{sfn|Slavery in Peru|1913|p=352-353}}{{cite book |last1=Paternoster |first1=Sidney |title=The Lords of the Devil's Paradise |date=1913 |publisher=S. Paul & Company |page=97 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_nTXAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22armando+normand%22&pg=PA9}} Leavine also witnessed other crimes to which Caporo testified.{{sfn|Hardenburg|1912|p=331}} In one instance, a native chief was burnt alive in front of his wife and two children because he was not able to collect enough rubber to satisfy Normand.{{sfn|Hardenburg|1912|p=252,331}} The wife was then beheaded, the children were killed, and their bodies were thrown into a fire.{{cite book |last1=Paternoster |first1=Sidney |title=The Lords of the Devil's Paradise |date=1913 |publisher=S. Paul & Company |page=95 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_nTXAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22armando+normand%22&pg=PA9 |access-date=21 July 2023}}{{sfn|Hardenburg|1912|p=252}} Leavine and Caporo also witnessed Normand killing a woman because she refused to be the concubine of an employee.{{cite book |last1=Taussig |first1=Michael |title=Shamanism, Colonialism, and the Wild Man |date=1991 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=0226790134 |page=47 |edition=First |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HpRfEAAAQBAJ&dq=%22armando+normand%22&pg=PR7 |access-date=22 July 2023}}{{cite book |last1=Paternoster |first1=Sidney |title=The Lords of the Devil's Paradise |date=1913 |publisher=S. Paul & Company |page=96 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_nTXAAAAMAAJ&q=normand&pg=PA9 |access-date=21 July 2023}}{{efn|Caporo stated Normand cut the legs off of this woman and abandoned her for a day and a night in a field before returning to this scene and executing the woman with a Mauser revolver.{{sfn|A catalogue of crime|1912|p=162}}}} Normand wrapped another woman in a kerosene-soaked Peruvian flag and set her on fire; she was then shot, Caporo stated she had previously suffered one hundred whip lashes.{{sfn|Hardenburg|1912|p=252,331}}{{cite book |last1=Paternoster |first1=Sidney |title=The Lords of the Devil's Paradise |date=1913 |publisher=S. Paul & Company |page=96 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_nTXAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22armando+normand%22&pg=PA9 |access-date=21 July 2023}}{{sfn|Slavery in Peru|1913|p=163}}

Near the end of Caporo's deposition, he declared "[t]o terminate with this repugnant criminal, whom I have seen commit crimes so horrible that perhaps they are unequalled in the history of the entire world, it is sufficient to say that I have seen him repeatedly snatch tender children from their mothers’ arms, and, grasping them by the feet, smash their heads to pieces against the trunks of trees."{{sfn|Hardenburg|1912|p=253}} According to Westerman Leavine, over the course of six years, he saw Normand kill "many hundreds" of indigenous people, including women and children.{{sfn|Slavery in Peru|1913|p=265}}{{sfn|Casement|1997|p=424}}{{sfn|Hardenburg|1912|p=302}} This did not include the many indirect killings that were caused by starvation, exposure, and the demanding job of collecting and delivering rubber.{{sfn|Hardenburg|1912|p=302}} The Barbadian Frederick Bishop claimed that the elderly Andoque people, "all Normand could get hold of", had been killed long before 1910.{{sfn|Casement|1997|p=250}}

Judge Carlos A. Valcarcel found evidence that Normand flogged, imprisoned, and starved to death at least four indigenous people.{{sfn|Valcárcel|2004|p=164}}{{efn|These people were named Queschefó, Jolé, Cadanellaje and Pacpadefachi. Pacpadefachi was the brother Tojá.{{sfn|Valcárcel|2004|p=164}}}} Valcarcel charged Normand with the destruction of the {{ill|Cadanechajá|es}}, {{ill|Japaja|es}}, {{ill|Cadanache|es}}, {{ill|Coigaro|es}}, {{ill|Rosecomema|es}}, {{ill|Tomecagaro|es}}, {{ill|Aduije|es}}, and {{ill|Tichuina|es}} nations.{{sfn|Valcárcel|2004|p=165}} Paredes stated that at Matanzas, Normand imprisoned nearly 1,000 of the local indigenous people, they eventually died from excessive whipping, time in the stocks, and starvation.{{sfn|Valcárcel|2004|p=159,161}}

Valcárcel named of some of Normand's victims who died from flagellation and torture. One witness knew about the deaths of Ursechino, Cajecoy, Agocoboa, who were flogged and left to die in the stockade.{{sfn|Valcárcel|2004|p=165}}When Normand abducted Teresa, he murdered three other people, including Teresa's mother-in-law. Teresa's husband, Doñecoy Andoques, testified to this and said that his wife's original name was Paccicañate.{{sfn|Valcárcel|2004|p=165}} Normand also had Doñecoy and his father interred in the cepo, and the father of Doñecoy died as a result of Normand's abuse. Doñecoy was imprisoned for three months in the cepo, and upon his release Normand threatened to kill Doñecoy, like his parents, if he tried to care for Paccicañate.{{sfn|Valcárcel|2004|p=165}} Normand later whipped and assaulted Paccicañate, who he forced into becoming one of his concubines. She died the following day from his violence.{{sfn|Valcárcel|2004|p=163,175}}{{efn|The Barbadian Donald Francis witnessed this incident and reported it along with the killing of Isolina, Guiguije, and several other murders perpetrated by Normand in his deposition to judge Paredes in 1911. Francis estimated that there were 200 people killed at Matanzas during his employment at the station,{{sfn|Valcárcel|2004|p=175-176}} which was a year and nine months.{{sfn|Slavery in Peru|1913|p=310}}}} There were multiple witnesses to this incident, including Pablo Andoques, Lincoln Andoques, Caruso Muinane, and Daniel Alban, all of whom reported this information to judge Paredes in 1911.{{sfn|Valcárcel|2004|p=161,163,164,172,178}} Daniel Alban and Pablo Andoques both reported that Teresa was a victim of Normand's jealousy, and that Normand flogged her as well as had chili peppers spread on her genitals.{{sfn|Valcárcel|2004|p=163,173}}{{efn|Ciriaco Saldana was the only deponent to report that Normand had spread chili peppers, reduced to a paste, on Isolina's genitals during her murder.{{sfn|Valcárcel|2004|p=161}} Ciriaco may have confused the incident where Isolina was murdered, with the killing of Teresa / Paccicañate. Daniel Alban, Jorge Muinane, Donald Francis and Pablo Andoques reported to Paredes that chili peppers were used on Paccicañate.{{sfn|Valcárcel|2004|p=163,173,175,184}}}}

File:An indigenous youth carrying a load of rubber.jpg

Chiache o Zoy, the sister of Paccicañate, was also forced to become a concubine for Normand and later provided a testimony to judge Paredes in 1911. Chiache claimed that Normand forced Chiache to undergo two separate abortions, and during her deposition to Paredes, Chiache emphasized that one of these babies was already well developed. The deponents Dorotea Witoto and Roosevelt Andoques cite the forced abortions undergone by Chiache, to support their claim that Normand forced his indigenous concubines to have abortions. Roosevelt cited the case of another woman named Yjá to support his claim.{{sfn|Valcárcel|2004|p=161,183}} Another one of Normand's indigenous concubines, named Zoila Erazo, provided an oral testimony in 1980, some of which is based on her experience with Normand. In her testimony, Erazo described how Normand had threatened her and forced her to have an abortion.{{sfn|Chirif|2017|p=232-233}}{{efn|Roosevelt stated that this was because Normand did not want to have children with indigenous women,{{sfn|Valcárcel|2004|p=162,163,176}}}}

Chiache stated that Normand abused her because he had feelings of jealousy, and on one occasion Normand had her placed in chains. Chiache claimed that Normand had ordered the decapitation of numerous women on the route between La China and Matanzas because these women became tired of walking. She also stated that Normand personally killed, and had ordered his subordinates to kill, the children of women he captured so that they would not slow down Normand's group on the return journey to Matanzas or La China. Chiache testified that these killings were carried out in a variety of methods ranging from decapitation, strangulation, and by swords. In her deposition, she provided the names of several of these children killed by Normand or his subordinates. Chiache also reported several other instances of murder perpetrated by Normand, or on his orders, including the killing of Chiache's aunt by one of Normand's muchachos de confianza.{{efn|This killing was carried out by a muchacho named Caifás. Normand later killed Caifás because he believed Caifás wanted to kill him.{{sfn|Valcárcel|2004|p=176}}}}At the end of her deposition, she stated that Normand had cut the ring fingers off of two people for not meeting the demanded quota of rubber, and when Normand left the Putumayo he took three of Chiache's sisters with him, and two young girls that were unrelated to Chiache.{{sfn|Valcárcel|2004|p=165-166}}

File:Charred bones of Paccicañate or Teresa, murdered by Normand.jpg

There were multiple witnesses to the murder of an indigenous woman named Isolina, who was given to Normand as a concubine by Andrés O'Donnell as a gift of friendship.{{sfn|Valcárcel|2004|p=180-181}} When Carlos Seminario gave an account of Normand's crimes to Victor Macedo, the manager of La Chorrera transferred him to another plantation. Seminario and several other deponents stated Normand killed Isolina over jealousy of an employee named Blondel. After allowing Blondel to sleep with Isolina, Normand had her hanged and whipped, and Isolina died of her wounds.{{sfn|Valcárcel|2004|p=160,173,175,180-181}}{{efn|The 1911 deponents Donald Francis, Ciriaco Saldana Juan Sifuentes, Carlos Seminario, and Adolfo Lopez claimed that Normand had Isolina killed because of his jealousy.{{sfn|Valcárcel|2004|p=160,173,175,181-182}}}}

It was reported Normand amputated the arms and legs of a chief who refused to tell Normand the location of other indigenous people who had fled.{{sfn|Hardenburg|1912|p=315}}{{sfn|Slavery in Peru|1913|p=282-283,394}} Casement did not name this chief in his report{{sfn|Hardenburg|1912|p=315}}{{efn|Casement wrote that he "learned of more than one case of the kind, and have no doubt of the truth of the accusation..."{{sfn|Slavery in Peru|1913|p=282-283}}}} however Valcarcel named other chiefs whom Normand killed with a machete, including Chief Jañigandoy and five others.{{sfn|Valcárcel|2004|p=164}} He amputated the arms and legs of other indigenous people, leaving them to die of the resulting blood loss.{{sfn|Hardenburg|1912|p=301,315}}{{sfn|Valcárcel|2004|p=164}} One Barbadian named Clifford Quentin came forward, stating he saw one chief killed this way{{sfn|Slavery in Peru|1913|p=394}} because the chief had not got his people to extract rubber for Normand.{{sfn|Slavery in Peru|1913|p=394}} Quentin told Casement he had decapitated at least three indigenous people at the behest of Normand.{{sfn|Slavery in Peru|1913|p=394,396}} Normand had a native chief named Tojá put in chains and executed, then killed Tojá's wife Pandica with a machete; ten other women were killed by Normand's muchachos de confianza in the same manner on Normand's orders because they attempted to run away.{{sfn|Valcárcel|2004|p=164}}

File:“Charred bones of the Jeiviche and Cadañeineco Indians burned alive by Normand”.jpg

Normand murdered chiefs Jemajegaina, Chemeje, Cadanecoja, and Jiticupa because they did not bring their people to work rubber.{{sfn|Valcárcel|2004|p=165,170}} The corpses of those chiefs, except for Chemeje's, were burnt.{{sfn|Valcárcel|2004|p=165}} He also murdered chiefs Toocue and Pichijup for not inducing their people to work rubber.{{sfn|Valcárcel|2004|p=165,167}} A witness saw Normand kill the son of chief Napa and with ten other indigenous people because they tried to run away.{{sfn|Valcárcel|2004|p=167}} Hardenburg reports instances of kerosene being poured on men and women before they were immolated.{{sfn|Hardenburg|1912|p=301}}{{cite book |last1=Paternoster |first1=Sidney |title=The Lords of the Devil's Paradise |date=1913 |publisher=S. Paul & Company |page=111 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_nTXAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22armando+normand%22&pg=PA9 |access-date=21 July 2023}} Valcarcel's report mentions the immolation of a native named Jañaique.{{sfn|Valcárcel|2004|p=163}} According to Casement:

{{Blockquote |text=Dr Paredes declares that he himself certified to the murder of no less than 1,000 people in the actual station house of Andokes or Matanzas - Normand's headquarters.{{sfn|Valcárcel|2004|p=159}} This in no wise represented all the massacres perpetrated by that monster or his section, but only the deaths that Dr. Paredes became convinced of as having taken place in close proximity to the house itself. The bones he says he found in heaps - some in the bed of a stream - others in a deep pit that had been dug to receive them when it was known that I might visit Andokes - and others lined the paths through the forest in certain directions ... The crimes he attributes to Normand are worse even than I realised. He adds, too, that the outraging of children, of even very small children, was frequently practised by these men and that these innocent victims of this atrocious lust were killed or died from the effects of outrages committed upon them.{{sfn|Casement|2003|pp=659-660}}}}

Armando Normand was officially dismissed from the Peruvian Amazon Company on 14 February 1911 along with ten other employees who were implicated in the perpetration of atrocities against the indigenous population.{{efn|Abelardo Aguero, Jose Inocente Fonseca, Alfredo Montt, Fidel Velarde, and Augusto Jiménez were a part of this group that was dismissed.{{sfn|Casement|2003|p=104}}}} The Prefect of Iquitos sent a telegraph to the Peruvian Minister of Foreign Affairs which stated this group of men had fled towards Brazil.{{sfn|Casement|2003|pp=101,104}} On 29 June 1911, 215 arrest warrants were issued against employees of La Chorrera's agency, including Normand.{{sfn|Casement|2003|p=687}}{{cite journal |last1=Alva Orlandini |first1=Javier |title=El Hábeas Corpus en el Perú |journal=Revista de la Facultad de derecho y sciencas politicas de la universidad Alas Peruanas |date=15 May 2020 |volume=5 |issue=4 |pages=31–90 |doi=10.21503/lex.v5i4.1969 |url=https://revistas.uap.edu.pe/ojs/index.php/LEX/article/view/1969|doi-access=free }} There were three sets of arrest warrants issued against employees of the Peruvian Amazon Company. Normand was included with the second set, which was ordered by judge Romulo Paredes, and they were "charged with a multiplicity of murders and tortures all through that region".{{sfn|Casement|2003|p=687}} In December 1911, a Barbadian reported to Casement he had seen Normand and Victor Macedo, together in Manaus, along with several other men who were implicated in crimes in the Putumayo region. The Barbadian informed Casement he thought this group was going towards the Acre territory in Brazil.{{sfn|Casement|2003|p=685}}{{efn|In September of 1911, Herbert Spencer Dicky, who had been in the Putumayo for 14 months and was referred to Casement as trustworthy, told Casement that Normand was most likely at Mendoza in Argentina. Casement relayed this information to the English consul-general in Lima, who subsequently asked the Peruvian Minister of Foreign Affairs for his government to pursue the extradition of Normand from Argentina.{{sfn|Casement|2003|pp=582-583,603}}{{sfn|Slavery in Peru|1913|p=422}}}}

Normand later travelled to Buenos Aires then to Antofagasta, where he reportedly sold Panama hats for two years At the end of 1912, he returned to his home town of Cochabamba, still using his birth name.{{cite journal |last1=MacQueen |first1=Peter |last2= Normand |first2=Armando |title=A Criminal's Life Story: The Career of Armando Normand |journal=The National Magazine: An Illustrated American Monthly|issue=April to September 1913 |date=September 1913 |volume=38 |page=946 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0Y7NAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22armando+normand%22+%22macqueen%22&pg=PA946 |access-date=22 July 2023}} For a time, he started a business selling horses from Chile. Upon learning about Roger Casement's report, Armando wrote a letter to officials in Lima refuting the charges. Shortly after, he received an order of arrest and extradition to Peru, and the authorities sent him to Guadeloupe Gaol in Lima.{{cite news |last1=Vavasour Noel |first1=John |title=Peru To-day: A Monthly Illustrated Account of Peru's Development |date=1913 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z0g9AQAAMAAJ&dq=%22the+story+of+armando+normand%22&pg=PA745 |access-date=21 July 2023 |volume=5–6 |publisher=University of Chicago}} In 1913, while awaiting his trial, Normand participated in an interview with Peter Macqueen, detailing his life up to that point. In 1915 it was reported Normand had escaped to Brazil with other Arana henchmen. There are no historical traces of Armando Normand after that.

Angus Mitchell, the editor of Roger Casement's diary that was released in 1997, stated the Matanzas station "in a number of respects ... might be compared to the 'inner station' of [Joesph] Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness,' and if there is a single figure that resembles Kurtz in this journal it is Armando Normand".{{sfn|Casement|1997|p=253}}

In The Lords of the Devil's Paradise, Sidney Paternoster compares Normand to Simon Legree, a cruel and sadistic slaver in Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin. Paternoster wrote: "Legree's acts pale in comparison to those of Armando Normand, and surely if any one in the Putumayo is to be punished this man deserves to be made an example of".{{cite book |last1=Paternoster |first1=Sidney |title=The Lords of the Devil's Paradise |date=1913 |page=116 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_nTXAAAAMAAJ}}

Although Fred Mustard Stewart changes the name, nationality, and location of a character named Jorge Ruiz, who appears in Stewart's 1973 novel The Mannings, the character seems to be inspired by Armando Normand. In the novel, Stewart says Ruiz, an agent at the novel's Oro Blanco rubber station, "could have been a successful accountant in Caracas, but here in the jungle he had become a monster".{{cite book |last1=Stewart |first1=Fred |title=The Mannings |date=1973 |page=162 |publisher=New York, Arbor House |isbn=978-0-87795-053-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/manningsnovel00stew}}

• Peruvian Amazon Company
• Putumayo genocide
• Andrés O'Donnell
• Julio César Arana

{{notelist}}

• {{cite book |title=Slavery in Peru: Message from the President of the United States Transmitting Report of the Secretary of State, with Accompanying Papers, Concerning the Alleged Existence of Slavery in Peru |date=1913 |publisher=United States. Department of State |ref={{harvid|Slavery in Peru|1913}}|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Oy0UAAAAIAAJ&q=macedo |access-date=14 August 2023}}
• {{cite book |last1=Casement |first1=Roger |title=The Amazon Journal of Roger Casement |date=1997 |publisher=Anaconda Editions |isbn=1901990052 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yjwM99dulz4C |access-date=16 September 2023}}
• {{cite book |last1=Casement |first1=Roger |editor1-last=Mitchell |editor1-first=Angus |title=Sir Roger Casement's Heart of Darkness: The 1911 Documents |date=2003 |publisher=Irish Manuscripts Commission |isbn=9781874280989|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k4wiAQAAIAAJ&q=asturiana%27}}
• {{cite book |last1=Goodman |first1=Jordan |title=The Devil and Mr. Casement: One Man's Battle for Human Rights in South America's Heart of Darkness |date=2009 |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |isbn=978-1-84467-334-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fhsXAQAAMAAJ |access-date=21 August 2023}}
• {{cite book |last1=Hardenburg |first1=Walter |title=Transcript of 'The Devil's Paradise. / A catalogue of crime' by W. E. Hardenburg |ref={{harvid|A catalogue of crime|1912}}|date=1912 |publisher=National Library of Ireland |url=https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000722524}}
• {{cite book |last1=Hardenburg |first1=Walter |title=The Putumayo, the Devil's Paradise; Travels in the Peruvian Amazon Region and an Account of the Atrocities Committed Upon the Indians Therein |date=1912 |publisher=London: Fischer Unwin |location=Putumayo |isbn=1372293019|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/45204/45204-h/45204-h.htm |access-date=22 July 2023}}
• {{cite book |last1=Valcárcel |first1=Carlos |title=El proceso del Putumayo y sus secretos inauditos |date=2004 |publisher=The International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs |url=https://iwgia.org/es/recursos/publicaciones/317-libros/2853-el-proceso-del-putumayo-y-sus-secretos-inauditos.html}}
• {{cite book |last1=Olarte Camacho |first1=Vicente |title=Las crueldades en el Putumayo y en el Caquetá |date=1911 |publisher=Imprenta Eléctrica |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=240unQEACAAJ&q=larranag}}

{{cite book |last1=Chirif |first1=Alberto |title=Depues del Caucho |date=2017 |publisher=The International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs |url=https://www.iwgia.org/es/recursos/publicaciones/317-libros/4537-despu%C3%A9s-del-caucho.html}}

{{reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Normand, Armando}}

Category:1880 births

Category:20th-century slave traders

Category:Peruvian slave owners

Category:Bolivian serial killers

Category:Year of death unknown

Category:Putumayo genocide perpetrators