Augusto Jiménez Seminario

Augusto Jiménez Seminario was a Peruvian agent of the Peruvian Amazon Company, involved in the brutal exploitation of indigenous communities in the Putumayo River basin during the early 20th century. Jiménez was employed as an agent of Julio César Arana’s rubber firm J.C. Arana y Hermanos as early as 1904, this firm later became the Peruvian Amazon Company and they continued to employ Jiménez with management roles until 1911.

During his employment with Arana's rubber firms, Jiménez rose to a position of authority at the firm's agency of La Chorrera. He supervised forced labor, primarily among the Bora people located between the Igara Paraná tributary of the Putumayo River and the Cahuinari tributary of the Caqueta River. In 1904, he was appointed to manage the estate of Santa Julia, which had a port located on the lower Igara Paraná River. He was transferred to the estate of Abisinia in 1905 and subsequently served as the section's second in command, in subordination to Abelardo Agüero. Between 1906 and 1909, Jiménez managed Morelia, one of Abisinia's subsections, during this time period he became implicated with the deaths of many indigenous people, a large portion of which were held in captivity at Morelia or Abisinia. The Peruvian Amazon Company later appointed Jiménez as the estate manager of Ultimo Retiro, on the upper Igara Paraná River, Jiménez retained this position until 1911.

During his employment in La Chorrera's territory, Jiménez was implicated in a range of crime and violent practices. His role in the atrocities, which included killings, torture, and other abuses, was documented by multiple investigators, including journalist Benjamin Saldana Rocca, American engineer Walter Hardenburg, British diplomat Roger Casement, as well as the Peruvian judges Rómulo Paredes and Carlos Valcárcel. The Putumayo genocide, as this campaign of exploitation and violence came to be known, garnered international attention, sparking investigations and legal proceedings that named Jiménez and other company officials as responsible for severe human rights abuses.

In 1911, Jiménez was subject to an arrest warrant alongside other employees of the Peruvian Amazon Company. Jiménez was subsequently dismissed from the company and he fled the region with Abelardo Agüero as well as several other agents that were issued arrest warrants, they migrated towards Bolivia. These men trafficked a group of around seventy indigenous people, which the former intended to prevent from testifying to any judicial commissions and either sell the group of people or profit from their labour. The pair evaded incarceration until April 1914, at the time they were employed at a rubber producing estate which belonged to the Bolivian rubber baron Nicolás Suárez Callaú. Despite his arrest in Bolivia that year, Jiménez escaped detention and ultimately disappeared. His later life remains largely obscure, although reports suggest that he continued to operate near the Brazilian border, eluding justice until his death, which is not documented.