Top Peruvian foe of illegal logging brutally slain

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Top Peruvian foe of illegal logging brutally slain
Published: Tuesday, September 9, 2014 at 3:15 a.m.
Last Modified: Monday, September 8, 2014 at 8:47 p.m.


LIMA, Peru (AP) — An outspoken Peruvian opponent of illegal logging and three other native Ashaninka community leaders were brutally slain a remote region bordering Brazil, tribal authorities said Monday.

The activist, Edwin Chota, had received frequent death threats from illegal loggers, who he had tried for years to expel from the lands for which his community was seeking title.

Illegal loggers were suspected in the killings, Ashaninka regional leader Reyder Sebastian Quiltiquari said by phone. Pervasive corruption lets the loggers operate with impunity, stripping the Amazon region's river basins of prized hardwoods, especially mahogany and tropical cedar.

"He threatened to upset the status quo," said David Salisbury, a professor at the University of Richmond who was advising Chota on the title quest and had known him for a decade. "The illegal loggers are on record for wanting Edwin dead."


Read more: http://www.goupstate.com/article/20140909/API/309099999

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[center]

Edwin Chota [/center]

From last year, National Geographic:

Threats Fly as Peru Cops Seize Timber
June 2nd, 2013
by Scott Wallace
Posted to National Geographic
Natives seek protection from irate loggers

~snip~
Official documents from the prosecutor’s office in Pucallpa recorded statements from Saweto community chief Edwin Chota Valera and treasurer Jorge Ríos Pérez indicating they had received death threats from the man who claimed ownership of the wood, which officials valued at $100,000.

“Someone from Saweto will die, and I will denounce you as a drug trafficker,” logging boss Hugo Sorio Flores allegedly told Chota, who claims to have GPS coordinates to identify the exact locations where the timber was extracted. A third community official, Leandro Comacho Ramírez, says he was threatened last Friday, April 5th, by Eurico Mapes Gómez, one of the loggers the Ashéninka accuse of cutting the timber and selling it to Sorio Flores.

Chota said the people of Saweto hope the regional Ucayali government will soon title their homelands and shut down logging operations in the Alto Tamaya region. In the meantime, the community is living through moments of high anxiety.

“The timber and loggers are now under investigation,” Chota wrote in a statement from Pucallpa. “But who will protect the people of Saweto and their leaders from the armed and dangerous loggers?”

More:
http://scottwallace.com/blog/

[Judi Lynn]

1. Illegal loggers blamed for murder of Peru forest campaigner

Illegal loggers blamed for murder of Peru forest campaigner

Authorities confirm killing of Edwin Chota and three other men, with reports saying they were shot in front of villagers

Dan Collyns in Lima
theguardian.com, Monday 8 September 2014 23.01 EDT

Illegal loggers are being blamed for the murder of four Asheninka natives including a prominent anti-logging campaigner, Edwin Chota, near the Peruvian frontier with Brazil.

Authorities in Peru have confirmed that Chota, the leader of Alto Tamaya-Saweto, a community in Peru’s Amazon Ucayali region, fought for his people’s right to gain titles to their land and expel illegal loggers who raided their forests on the Brazilian border. He featured in reports by National Geographic and the New York Times that detailed how death threats were made against him and members of his community.

“This is a terribly sad outcome. And the saddest part is that it was a foreseen event,” said Julia Urrunaga, Peru director for the Environmental Investigation Agency, an international conservation group. “It was widely known that Edwin Chota and other leaders from the Alto Tamaya-Saweto community were asking for protection from the Peruvian authorities because they were receiving death treats from the illegal loggers operating in their area.”

~snip~
“Edwin Chota’s widow and other villagers travelled for six days by river to come here to report this crime,” Peru’s vice minister of intercultural affairs, Patricia Balbuena, told the Guardian. She had travelled to the regional capital, Pucallpa, to further investigate the case.

~snip~
A 2012 World Bank report estimated that as much as 80% of Peru’s logging exports are harvested illegally [PDF] and investigations have revealed that the wood is typically laundered using doctored papers to make it appear legal and ship it out of the country; while a 2012 report by the Environmental Investigation Agency indicated at least 40% of official cedar exports to the US included illegally logged timber.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/09/illegal-loggers-blamed-for-of-peru-forest-campaigner

[Sunlei]

15. This will happen as long as other countries are willing to buy exports they know are 'illegal.'

To me, it seems like most Govs in todays world look the other way at corruption with their countries natural resources.

“This is a terribly sad outcome. And the saddest part is that it was a foreseen event”

[Judi Lynn]

20. True! One article said 40% of US imported cedar is illegal, according to estimates. So wrong. n/t

[murielm99]

2. I am very sorry to see this.

A few years ago, my daughter traveled to Peru with a group called The Rain Forest Conservation Fund. A friend of mine is involved in running the group. They try to get the indigenous people to find other means of income, so they are not tempted to sell to the the illegal loggers. Mostly, wealthy people go with this group, as ecotourists, so that they can help fund the efforts.

My daughter had lived and studied in Bolivia. She was unable to go to Machu Picchu when she lived there, because there was unrest in Bolivia. She got to Machu Picchu twice on her trip with the conservation fund. My friend does not speak good Spanish, and was glad to have my daughter's help. I emailed her about this tragedy just now. She is still vitally interested in this issue.

Thanks for posting.

[Judi Lynn]

5. Anything which can be done to help the actual native citizens of Peru should be done,

as soon as humanly possible.

The people who live in the forest are living upon land which was the home of their ancestors. There is no reason in the world anyone should try to steal it from them. Unfortunately, there are too many corrupt, vicious people in local governments and higher who are only too eager to make money hand over fist by selling out their fellow human beings for profit, at the deadly cost of life to the helpless, those without power, without influence.

Any group which struggles to bring help to the voiceless, and those unlucky enough to be born without their own social, political connections is a group with the very best intentions.

It's tremendous your daughter got to Machu Picchu twice. The images I've seen are overwhelming. Now she has that experience living within her!

[freshwest]

6. +1

[murielm99]

10. There is a festival that is held

in a nearby community that this group helps fund. The goal is to make this event a bigger draw for tourists. Tourism is one way to help the people. Also, my daughter brought home some watercolors that she bought from one of the native men. He sells his watercolors to help feed his family. I had them nicely framed for her. I think the frames may have cost more than the pictures, but I was glad to do that.

[SunSeeker]

3. K & R for exposure. nt

[Uncle Joe]

4. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Judi Lynn.

[littlemissmartypants]

16. Ditto. eom

[ReRe]

7. K&R

Money is the root of all Evil, and anyone or any group (multinational Corporations) who kills to steal resources from 3rd world or weak countries in order to profit from that theft proves the point. What is the reaction of the Peruvian government, i.e. Pres. Ollanta Humala? Thanks for this news Judi Lynn, even though it's tragic.

[defacto7]

9. I totally agree.

n/t

[Judi Lynn]

11. It appeared a lot of indigenous people were hoping for far more protection from this President,

considering he himself is an indigenous native Peruvian.

There are powerful forces, however, intent upon totally tearing the country apart, in search of more wealth, including some U.S. oil companies. I recall seeing the Hunt Oil Company in Texas has been involved in invading the Peruvian forests where there are actual people trying to survive.

The people in the forests have tried their best to avoid running across outsiders but it can't be done when they insist upon invading their rapidly shrinking world, bringing disease, and, of course, the ever popular assassinations of their strongest leaders.

I just ran across this photo of a precious child trying to live to adulthood, and beyond, if someone doesn't murder her, too:
[center]


Ashéninka girl in south-east Peru[/center]
[center]~ ~ ~[/center]
Berlin: Peru President urged to protect uncontacted tribes’ land 14 July 2014

Ahead of the visit of Peru’s President Ollanta Humala to Germany for a climate conference this week, Survival International, the global movement for tribal peoples’ rights, has written to the President urging him to protect the lands of highly vulnerable uncontacted tribes in the Amazon rainforest from illegal logging and drug trafficking.

The call follows alarming news that an uncontacted tribe has made contact with a settled indigenous community in Brazil. The Brazilian government believes that the Indians were pushed over the border from Peru due to the failure of the authorities to combat illegal logging and drug trafficking in their territory.

Uncontacted Indians in other areas of Peru’s Amazon also face threats from massive gas and oil projects on their land. Unless their lands are protected they face catastrophe from violence or deadly diseases to which they have no resistance.

More:
http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/10348

[center]~ ~ ~[/center]
US oil and gas firm Hunt urged to suspend Amazon exploration

Concerns over indigenous reserve and archaeological remains prompts call from local federation

Posted by
David Hill

Thursday 27 February 2014 12.12 EST
theguardian.com

An indigenous federation from south-east Peru wants exploration operations by US company Hunt Oil in a supposedly protected reserve in the Amazon to be suspended.

“This is not a fight against investment but a fight for a socially just, environmentally balanced and moral development,” says FENAMAD, which claims to represent seven indigenous peoples and more than 30 communities in Peru’s Madre de Dios region, in a statement released last Friday. “As a result we request. . . that operations – which are putting the cultural patrimony of the Harakbut people, the region and nation at risk – are stopped while the Master Plan for the Amarakaeri Communal Reserve [ACR] is brought up-to-date.”

FENAMAD states that there are “archaeological remains” in the ACR within “direct influence” of Hunt’s drilling, that the company itself has acknowledged this, and that as a result the Culture Ministry should intervene.

More:
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/andes-to-the-amazon/2014/feb/27/hunt-amazon-oil-gas-exploration-suspend

[center]~ ~ ~[/center]
It may be time for intervention from the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Clearly we have monsters who have seized control of our planet, and they somehow have bribed enough people to have the power of the world's militaries behind them should they decide they need to kill off a lot of stubborn people who won't just kill themselves and get out of their way so they, the "First World Monsters" may "grow" their wealth.

[ReRe]

12. Did the assassinations just take place, like...

... yesterday? I didn't notice the date on your OP link. I so want there to be a big negative reaction to this. Hello Pope Francis? How's about Amnesty International?

Does Peru have a civil service org or militia equivalent to our National Guard? I hope someone can arouse some protection for those indigenous people. Margaret Mead is rolling in her grave, and screaming "Leave them People alone!"

[Judi Lynn]

19. They were assassinated a few days ago. It took his widow six days on the river to tell authorities.

Last edited Wed Sep 10, 2014, 01:22 AM - Edit history (1)

His machete didn't protect him from all the loggers guns once they opened up on him and his neighbors.

Apparently his wife just got the news to "civilization" in the last day or two.

It really is bad for the whole world when things like this can happen. So damned sad.

Oh, Peru has militia's alright! They've used them to claim they were pursuing Sendero Luminoso (Shining Light), while they would slaughter all kinds of indigenous Puruvians, including the filthy act of approaching a small town, asking the men to dig out a pond which they would fill with fish for them to use for food. They men obliged, then the Puruvian military gathered the people together and shot them all, and buried them in the pit. They've been full of ideas like that and all with full support of the U.S. Gov't throughout.

The current President hasn't ordered any massacres, knock on wood. He seems to be more moderate, and leftish than the others.

Oh, yes: there was a massacre of a lot of people several years ago, under Alan "Two Breakfasts" Garcia, when he had his military shoot directly into a lot of Amazonian indigenous people, with NO guns. He also brought in helicopters from which they were able to bag more people before they were finished. That event was called the Bagua Massacre.

That concerned the Gov't trying to sell their land to international corporations, as well, which was actually illegal. He accused them of being selfish for wanting to remain upon the only land they had ever known, all the way back to their remote ancestors.

[ReRe]

22. Thank you for telling the story of those poor people

I just have no words for the Evil that is allowed BY governments to be done to their own people. What a beautiful child in the picture. She kind of looks like me when I was little. I thought I came through Hell as a child, but that little girl really does know what Hell of earth is, because she lives in the middle of it. She probably won't even live to her teens, let alone adulthood.

[defacto7]

8. Utterly sad.

but expected. It's an ugly world that kills for drinking money.

[geek tragedy]

13. So many local activists are being murdered

And in the rare event that they catch and prosecute the hired thugs who pull the trigger, authorities never go after those who ordered the assassination.

[Judi Lynn]

21. It's a grotesque "reality" now. Greedy,murderous monsters can hire killers to take the risks. n/t

[heaven05]

14. dead

because of money. If furniture makers and whoever else buys this timber would not, these types of tragic deaths would be over. What is deemed desirable by some people is a shame on humanity. All because of money, greed for that money and don't forget, power over other human beings. Such a sad world where the filthy lucre trumps human life. And this level of thinking RUNS/DRIVES the greed of the guilty individuals and countries...... our priorities are all backwards. I am really saddened by this murder.

[snagglepuss]

17. Very sad news.

[Judi Lynn]

18. Police meet widows of slain indigenous leaders

Police meet widows of slain indigenous leaders
By FRANK BAJAK, Associated Press | September 9, 2014 | Updated: September 9, 2014 9:12pm

LIMA, Peru (AP) — Peruvian police investigators and a deputy minister met Tuesday with widows of four slain indigenous leaders who had resisted a steady onslaught by illegal loggers in their remote Amazon jungle homeland.

The Ashaninka community's slain leader, Edwin Chota, had for years led efforts to obtain titles to its traditional lands near Brazil's border. He constantly confronted the loggers who strip the region's river basins of prized hardwoods, especially mahogany and cedar.

Tribal authorities say they suspected illegal loggers in the killings, and described an intensified climate of fear.

Pervasive corruption lets the illegal loggers operate unhindered in the region, and environmentalists said they only hope the death of Chota and the three others will be a catalyst for reform.

"We'll see what we can do to change this horrible tragedy into hopefully a small victory for indigenous rights and environmental justice," said David Salisbury, a professor at the University of Richmond who was advising Chota on the title quest and had known him for a decade.

Peru's deputy minister of intercultural affairs, Patricia Balbuena, told The Associated Press from Pucallpa, the Ucayali state regional capital, after meeting with the widows that she was organizing helicopter transport to the region on Wednesday so police could investigate and retrieve the bodies.

More:
http://www.chron.com/news/world/article/Police-meet-widows-of-slain-indigenous-leaders-5744796.php