Kuélap: what is the situation of the fortress after suffering two collapses of its perimeter walls?

Last Sunday, April 10, the first collapse of part of the perimeter wall of the archaeological fortress of Kuelap, located in the province of Luya in the region, was reported Amazon, due to leaks caused by the rains that have occurred in the area for several weeks.

On April 11, a new collapse was reported, causing tourism to close in that area of Luya. Given this, in an interview with RPP, the mayor of the province of Luya, Diosgeno Zavaleta regrets the event that occurred in Kuelap.

“The fall of the wall of the Kuélap fortress is regrettable, since all the socio-economic activity of our land is born, without it there is no cable car or tourist activities and there is practically nothing,” he said.

On the other hand, the regional governor of Amazonas Oscar Altamirano said that the problems in Kuelap have not been solved for up to 15 years. “Here we must define some responsibilities. The national government, through the Ministry of Culture and the COPESCO Plan, has had to deal with maintenance and conservation,” said Altamirano.

In addition, he explained that since 2018, the COPESCO Plan has put out to tender the maintenance of the main gate of the fortress; in 2019 they had destroyed the walls until the beginning and have not been improved and until today they have been abandoned. “We have taken the presidents and, look, until today it is abandoned,” he said.

Zavaleta also confirmed that in those years, the population rose and many authorities also participated in those movements. “With the arrival of the deputy minister at the time, we had a series of talks for coordination, in view of the fact that these proposals were being isolated. Some specialists recommended making a comprehensive proposal of the entire fortress because some cracks had been found in several areas and at the same time, as a result of the rains in the area. From that moment on, with the arrival of the pandemic, this kind of thing has stopped intervening, everything was half done,” he said.

Zavaleta added that the issue of drainage in Kuelap is important, the technical proposal had to be made by the Minister of Culture and that process has been neglected in recent years.

“The Decentralized Directorate of Culture, which is in Chachapoyas, has no autonomy in such a way that in order to move any small intervention at least, in order to get out of that problem, it must be authorized by the Ministry of Culture of Lima then all the resources that are they collect in Kuelap from the central they go to Lima. (...) It cannot be managed autonomously economically and strategically,” he said.

“If we want to drain, we have to have Lima's authorization. By the way, total autonomy lies with the Minister of Culture on the subject of archaeological heritage, so as a Municipality we cannot intervene”, he regretted.

He concluded by mentioning some alternatives to improve this issue in the Amazon region, in addition to inviting Peruvian and foreign tourists to visit the region in other areas that are also very beautiful.

“With administrative and economic autonomy, the Central Government must allocate the corresponding funds so that they can intervene, so that research, restoration and enhancement of the archaeological heritage of our region can be carried out. Not only in Kuelap, but there are also hundreds of archaeological heritage sites that are abandoned, which are being destroyed every day by inclement weather, animals and even in some areas by some irresponsible people,” he said.

“Here we do not have that autonomy of culture, the few funds allocated by the Central Government through the Ministry of Culture are not well used by responsible contractors, abandoning part of the interventions and as a result of that we also have the fall of these walls”, he concluded.

On the other hand, a young neighbor from Bagua Grande spoke with Infobae Peru, who commented that various regional authorities have constantly asked for and are asking for a budget to take care of cultural heritage, but this one always responds that “there is no budget or that it is not enough”.

In addition, at another time, archaeologist Luis Jaime Castillo, spoke with RPP there are between two or three thousand high-class archaeological sites in Peru. “How many are served by the State? Very few”, he wondered.

In addition, he assured that it is not possible to intervene at the moment in the fortress and estimates that it will take approximately a year for this issue to be resolved.

“It will not be possible to intervene tomorrow in Kuelap. You have to make a public budget, a tender. It's probably going to be a year,” he said.

He concluded by mentioning that the studies that have been carried out in the area should be put into practice. “The studies are there and it's not a question of doing more, it's putting into practice what the studies have determined.”

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