Armando Normand

Armando Normand (1880-?) was a serial killer of Peruvian and Bolivian descent, who was one of the worst perpetrators of the Putumayo genocide. Between 1904 and October of 1910, he worked for the Peruvian Amazon Company, extracting rubber with slave labor. During those years, he lead a reign of terror against the local indigenous populations: committing 'innumerable' murders, torture, burning men as well as women alive, dashing the brains out of children, and dismembering the natives. Accusations and evidence of his crime were documented by Roger Casement in 1910, and judge Carlos A. Valcárcel in 1915. The total number of his victims is unknown.
==Early life==
Born in Cochabamba, Bolivia around 1880. He reportedly spent the first twenty years of his life in the city and its vicinity.
"Our family was one of the first in the Province of Cochabamba, and I was afforded excellent opportunities for an securing education. After graduating from the Seminario in my native city, I spent two years studying law, but finally abandoned 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."
==Career==
While in London, Normand became friends with the Bolivian minister Avelino Aramayo: through this connection he became acquainted with many influential people from Peru and Bolivia. He left London in 1904, travelling to Pará, Brazil with a letter of introduction to Carlos Larrañaga. Larrañaga was the regional manager for Suarez Hermanos, the largest rubber firm in Bolivia. Since there were no open positions at the firm, Carlos referred his letter 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 Barbados to hire workers. He returned to La Chorrera with around 30 men: and was commissioned with those men to set up a settlement, and "trade relations" with Andoque tribes people. The group set up the station that would become known as Matanzas: and soon set off on slave raids and 'punitive expeditions' to hunt down natives with weapons. In 1905 Armando was made the co-manager of the Matanzas station, and was fully placed in charge in 1906. Reportedly, for every 15 kilos of rubber collected by the natives, Normand would receive 3 soles. The locals who had been enslaved were expected to gather between 50-75 kilos of rubber depending on the quota. From Matanzas, the natives were to travel to Entre Rios, a full two days walk with little to no food. By 1907, Normand as well as his employer Arana were the objects of complaints made by Benjamin Saldaña Rocca, a stubborn journalist from Iquitos who was determined to hold them responsible for their crimes. Saldaña used the statements and first hand accounts from former workers of the rubber stations, publishing them in 'La Felpa' and 'La Sanscion,' two small newspapers from Iquitos. Thus for three years before Roger Casements visit, Armando's crimes were well known in Peru. Armando left the company a month or two after Casements journey: he had requested in a letter to leave the previous year.
Roger Casement relays in his report:
" 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, when I accompanied a caravan of some two hundred Andokes and Boras Indians (men, women, and children) that left Matanzas station on the 19th of October to carry their rubber that had been collected by them during the four or five preceding months down to a place{302} on the banks of the Igaraparaná, named Puerto Peruano (Peruvian Port), whence it was to be conveyed in lighters towed by a steam launch down to La Chorrera. The distance from Matanzas to Puerto Peruano is one of some forty miles, or possibly more. The rubber had already been carried into Matanzas from different parts of the forest lying often ten or twelve hours’ march away, so that the total journey forced upon each carrier was not less than sixty miles, and in some cases probably a longer one. The path to be followed was one of the worst imaginable—a fatiguing route for a good walker quite unburdened."
==Arrest & disappearence==
Normand traveled 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 birthname. For a time, he started a business selling horses from Chile. Upon learning about Roger Casement's report, Armando wrote a report to Lima refuting the charges. Shortly after he received and order for arrest & extradition to Peru: the authorities sent him to Guadelupe Gaol. In 1913 he participated in an interview with Peter Macqueen, detailing his life up to that point. Normand's incarceration did not last long, in 1915 it was reported that 'Normand escaped with other henchmen of Arana to Brazil.' There are no historical traces of Armando Normand after that.
Category:1880 births
Category:People from Cochabamba
Category:Serial killers