‘The death of Quinto Inuma highlights the impunity that prevails in cases of environmental crimes and violations of Indigenous peoples’ rights’

LIMA, Peru — A Kichwa tribal leader has been shot to death in an area of the Peruvian rainforest that’s seen high tensions between Indigenous people and illegal loggers.

Quinto Inuma Alvarado was attacked as he was returning from presenting at a workshop for women environmental leaders in the San Martín region of the Amazon on Wednesday, his son, Kevin Arnol Inuma Mandruma, told The Associated Press in a phone interview. Peruvian police confirmed his death.

“He was travelling in a boat,” when assailants blocked the river with a tree trunk, Kevin Inuma said. “There were many shots fired.”

The boat carried six people, said Kevin Inuma, including his mother, brother, sister and uncles. Quinto Inuma was shot three times in the back and once in the head, and Kevin Inuma’s aunt was wounded too, he said.

Kevin Inuma was not on the trip. He said his brother and mother recounted the attack to him.

Quinto Inuma had received numerous death threats over illegal logging, said Kevin Inuma.

The loggers “told him they were going to kill him because he had made a report,” he said. “They’ve tried to kill him several times, with beatings and now gunfire.”

A joint statement from Peru’s ministries of Interior, Environment, Justice and Human Rights, and Culture, said Quinto Inuma was the victim of a “cowardly” attack. The statement promised a “meticulous investigation on the part of the National Police” and said a search for suspects was underway.

read more: https://ictnews.org/news/peruvian-rainforest-defender-shot-dead-in-river-attack