Death of 'Irrepressible' Forest Defender Prompts Investigation [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

Published on Thursday, September 11, 2014
by Common Dreams

Death of 'Irrepressible' Forest Defender Prompts Investigation

Illegal loggers suspected in killing of Edwin Chota, other leaders

by Nadia Prupis, staff writer


[font size=1]
Edwin Chota attending a meeting on land titles and illegal logging in the Chambira community. (Photo: Emory Richey)
[/font]
Authorities in Peru are investigating the murder of environmental activist Edwin Chota, a leader of the Ashaninka Indian village of Saweto, who was killed along with three other men in a remote area of the Amazon jungle that they were attempting to protect from illegal logging.

Chota was murdered on September 1 after he left his home in Saweto to meet with other indigenous leaders and anti-logging activists who lived deeper within the jungle, a few days' walk away, near the Brazilian border. His body, and that of the other three men who were killed with him, was discovered by villagers several days later. The distance from the village to the regional capital, Pucallpa, delayed news of Chota’s death for over a week.

Illegal loggers are suspected in the killings, according to Ashaninka regional leader Reyder Sebastián. Chota often spoke of receiving death threats due to his activism and told the New York Times in 2010 that “the law does not reach where we live.”

“They could kill us at any time,” Chota said.

Chota had long fought for the rights of indigenous people to reclaim their land and ban loggers who illegally cut trees and raided the region’s rainforests.

More:
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2014/09/11/death-irrepressible-forest-defender-prompts-investigation