Almost a decade after the murder of four Saweto Indigenous leaders near the Peruvian border with Brazil, families have finally been brought justice, with five men convicted of the killings.
On the afternoon of November 29, Quinto Inuma Alvarado, Indigenous Kichwa leader and chief of the Santa Rosillo de Yanayacu community, was murdered in front of his family with three gunshots. Nine years ago, on September 1, 2014, four Ashéninka leaders of the community Alto Tamaya-Saweto, Edwin Chota Valera, Jorge Ríos Pérez, Leoncio Quintisima Meléndez, […]
Eight Indigenous leaders from Ucayali and Huánuco have received threats for months from narco-trafficking mafias, land invaders, and illegal loggers. Several days ago, they were in Lima demanding protection from the Peruvian government. They fear for their lives.
It couldn t have been a coincidence. A threatening message arrived on October 2nd in the afternoon. It was left in the front door of the offices of ORAU (Regional Organization of AIDESEP in Ucayali) in Pucallpa. That same day, only hours before, one of their office workers was shot in an alleged robbery.
The threat was directed at Berlín Diques, President of ORAU, and his advisor Jamer López. The organization, which represents 300 communities among 15 different Amazonian Indigenous Peoples of the Ucayali region in Peru, had denounced various mafias that operate in the rainforest. They filed charges, activating the Ministry of Justice s protocol for human rights defenders, and both received police protection. But this pr