 The isolated area was outside the reach of the national government and near the border with Colombia—which played an important role at that time, with the construction of the Panama Canal—, Colombia periodically made incursions in competition for the rubber.For years, the indigenous peoples had been forced into unpaid labour by field staff of the Anglo-Peruvian Amazon Rubber Company, who exerted absolute power over them and subjected them to near starvation, severe physical abuse, rape of women and girls by the managers and overseers, branding and casual murder.Casement found conditions more inhumane than those in the Congo.