Live
Audio Only
Over the last week, two Indigenous leaders were killed in the Ucayali department.
Peru's Environment Ministry on Sunday reported the murder of Cacataibo Indigenous leader and Amazon environmental defender Herasmo Garcia at the hands of drug traffickers.
RELATED:
Garcia, 28, was found dead with several bullet impacts. He disappeared on Thursday when he left his home to verify the presence of traffickers in the Sinchi Roca community in the Ucayali region.
The Regional Organization of the Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Jungle (AIDESEP) demanded a state of emergency and the dismantling of gangs linked to drug trafficking.
"This death occurs because we have been abandoned by the Peruvian authorities. We are left at the mercy of drug traffickers, land invaders, and illegal loggers," AIDESEP stated.
In Brazilian Amazon the rate of infection by COVID-19 among Indigenous people is 150% higher than the national average rate The plight of Amazonian urban dwellers is no less dire, with cities like Manaus (Brazil), Iquitos (Peru) and Leticia (Colombia) showing high infection rates pic.twitter.com/oik0zzAuox
— Science Panel for the Amazon (@theamazonwewant) January 20, 2021
Four days before Garcia's death, environmental defender Yenes Rios, 25, was also killed by drug traffickers in the Coronel Portillo province.
At least 12 environmental leaders were murdered in the Peruvian Amazon in the last seven years. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, four Indigenous people rights activists have been killed over the last year.
"This is not an isolated case, it is a great concern that makes us desperate and it is a situation that everyone knows about but the authorities do not act because little or nothing matters to them," AIDESEP noted.
Newsletter
