Protectors of Indigenous territories in the Peruvian Amazon face threats from drug traffickers, loggers, illegal miners and others seeking to exploit their resources. Since 2013, several defenders have been murdered, and dozens remain under threat of death.
At least 43 Amazonian Indigenous leaders appear to be lined up on death row, threatened by predators of their territories, of the wealth they contain and the importance the rainforest holds for humanity
The wave of killings began on 27 May 2013. Since then, 37 Indigenous leaders have been murdered for opposing intruders involved in illegal logging, drug production and trafficking, illegal mining and the trafficking of Indigenous lands.<
The first to fall, at the hands of hired assassins, was the Apu (leader) of the native community of Nuevo Amanecer, Mauro Pío Peña — a crime committed when he was returning home in the province of Satipo, in the jungle part of the Andean-Amazonian region of Junín.
In the 13 years since then, 37 of the so-called Defenders of the Amazon have been killed — without protection mechanisms being able to prevent it, as they have proved insufficient across the various communities scattered throughout the vast Peruvian Amazon.
The newspaper La República reported that the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights has recorded more than 600 cases of native people at risk since 2019, such as James Pérez Pacaya, president of the Indigenous Association for Development and Conservation of the Lower Puinahua Area (Loreto).
The emissaries of death hiding in the shadows keep Pérez under threat of death, which is why he must wear a bulletproof vest to continue fulfilling the mission of safeguarding the territories of his ancestors.
A study by the Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Rainforest (Aidesep) indicates that, in addition to drug trafficking, illegal logging and illegal mining, native territories are threatened by illegal fishing, the presence of armed groups and conflicts over the overlapping of alleged rights over Indigenous territories. PL
(Translated by Natasha Greenidge) – Photos: Pixabay
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