Top Peruvian foe of illegal logging brutally slain

[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