Amazonian natives condemn new murder of leader in Peru
Lima, Jul 16 (RHC) The Inter-Ethnic Association of the Peruvian Jungle -Aidesep- and the Kakataibo ethnic group condemned the murder of Amazonian leader Mariano Isacama, whose body was found with traces of torture.
In a joint communiqué, Aidesep, the Native Federation of Kakataibo Communities and their Native Guard, denounced that the deceased was found near the Yúrac river, near the town of Aguaitía in the central-Amazonian department of Pucallpa.
The Amazonian and human rights defender had been missing for more than three weeks, which was denounced to the police who, according to the natives, did not act, so the community members themselves searched for him and found his body.
According to journalistic accounts, Isacama became the 34th Amazonian leader murdered since 2020, in this case presumably killed by illegal coca leaf growers who are trying to take over the lands of the Kakataibos.
A communiqué of the native organizations regrets the late reaction of the State authorities who did not act properly in searching and rescuing the missing person, despite multiple requests to the Police, the Prosecutor's Office and the Ministry of Justice.
The statement points to Washington Bolivar as a suspect in the crime, because he tried to impugn Isacama as a leader and misinformed about his disappearance claiming that he was in another town.
The statement points to Washington Bolivar as a suspect in the crime, because he tried to impugn Isacama as a leader and misinformed about his disappearance claiming that he was in another town for a walk and did the same in the previous case of the murder of the leader Benjamin Flores.
It demands that the specialized prosecutors in Human Rights and Interculturality, to investigate thoroughly and quickly to punish the perpetrators of the crime with the full weight of the law.
He adds that "The Kakataibo people will make use of indigenous justice to find those responsible and bring them to the attention of the Public Prosecutor's Office so they can be punished".
"We do not want more violence, but to live in safe territories and free from outsiders who put us in danger," he adds.
Last April, a court sentenced logging businessmen Hugo Soria and José Estrada and Eurico Mapes, Josimar Atachi and Segundo Atachi to 28 years and three months in prison, as direct co-perpetrators of the murder of the leaders of the Asháninka jungle ethnic group Edwin Chota, Jorge Ríos, Leoncio Quintisima and Francisco Pinedo, in September 2014. (Source: Prensa Latina)
