A CENTURY after its existence was revealed to the world, Machu Picchu remains at the centre of a long-running legal dispute between a local family and Peru’s government over who owns the iconic lost city of the Incas.
Sunday is the centenary of the discovery of the site by US explorer Hiram Bingham, and Peru is mounting a series of national celebrations to mark the event, with President Alan García leading commemorations at the ruins which have come to symbolise the Andean nation.
But two families from the nearby city of Cuzco claim they have documents showing they are the legitimate owners of Machu Picchu, which attracts over 800,000 visitors a year.
The Zavaleta and Abrill families are both descended from Mariano Ferro, the landlord who owned the land where Bingham discovered the ruins. They have fought a long battle through Peru’s courts and even brought their case before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in a so-far futile bid to have their rights recognised.
They are demanding millions of euro in compensation for what they say is the “expropriation” of their patrimony, and also want a share of the income the government earns from charging tourists for entry to the site.
The government dismisses their claim. Peruvian law makes all significant archaeological sites property of the nation. In 1944 the state expropriated Machu Picchu – a 15th century citadel which archaeologists now believe was built by the Incan emperor Pachacutec.
It was declared a national historical sanctuary in 1981 and a Unesco world heritage site in 1983.
As well as the dispute over ownership there is also a debate in Peru about whether Sunday’s anniversary should be celebrated at all.
Many resent the notion that it is Yale professor Bingham who is widely acknowledged as Machu Picchu’s discoverer. Eliane Karp, the country’s former first lady, has criticised the “grandiloquent” official celebrations to mark the centenary of what she refers to as “a myth called the Discovery of Machu Picchu”.
“[Bingham] did not discover it, he was brought there by Peruvian scientists and peasants, who were always in this region and knew of its existence,” wrote the French-born anthropologist in Lima’s La Republica newspaper. “In the collective memory of the local indigenous people, Machu Picchu and its stories never stopped existing.”
Peru’s minister of culture last week tried to defuse the controversy, telling local television the centenary marked a “shared discovery” between Peruvians and Bingham.
“On one hand are the Peruvians who knew about it and gave help to the foreigner, who then divulged it at the international level,” said Juan Ossio.
The government is keen to capitalise on the anniversary as a means of promoting the country’s tourist industry – the economy’s third largest, after mining and fishing.
Meanwhile, indigenous rights group Survival International has criticised Peru’s government for planning to grant energy companies access to lands in the Kugapakori-Nahua-Nanti reservation, which lies just 100km from Machu Picchu. It says the move would pose “an extreme risk” to the lives of several uncontacted Indian tribes known to live in the area.
“It appears that double standards are at play,” said Stephen Corry, director of Survival International. “When it suits the government to exploit its indigenous peoples, it celebrates them; when it finds a way of profiting from their lands, it draws up plans that could lead to their extinction.”
In 2009, authorities in the reserve stumbled across a previously unknown nomadic tribe when checking for illegal loggers. Survival International estimates the group is one of up to 15 uncontacted groups living in the region.