Economies based on illegal mining and logging are gaining ground in Peru, Brazil and Venezuela

Due to the murders and continued persecution suffered by indigenous defenders in Peru and other Latin American countries, representatives of indigenous organizations in the Peruvian Amazon denounced before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) the little or no state action to protect their rights and guarantee safe environments.

“In addition to the high levels of risk we face, we are now being subjected to criminalization for our frontal fight against illicit extractive economies that violate the collective rights of indigenous peoples. This criminalization is proof of how the punitive power of the State is arbitrarily used as a tool to silence environmental defenders using legality as a façade,” denounced Ángel Pedro Valerio, president of the Central Asháninka del Río Ene (CARE).

The indigenous leader thus denounced that abuses committed against defenders occur at the state and private levels, ranging from the arbitrary use of the State’s punitive power, threats and physical attacks to cases of forced disappearances and murders.

“Not only have drug trafficking mafias pointed me out, but also the State itself through an unfair and irregular process. That is why I ask the Inter-American Commission to demand that the Peruvian State protect defenders and implement a protocol in cases of criminalization,” said Ángel Pedro Valerio, who since September 2023 has been included in an investigation that initially called for his arrest without having been duly notified to exercise his defense.

For his part, Miguel Guimaraes, vice president of the Inter-Ethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Rainforest (AIDESEP) reported that 35 murders of indigenous defenders, who protected the Amazonian forests and territories, have already been recorded this year.

“We are murdered by criminal organizations of illegal economies such as illegal logging, mining, and drug trafficking. In November 2023, Brother Quinto Inuma was murdered despite having protection measures from the State. For this case, the Inter-American Commission granted precautionary measure 110923 in March, but the authorities refuse to implement it,” he denounced.

She requested that the IACHR urge the Peruvian State to comply with its obligation to protect the lives of indigenous defenders, since despite the critical situation, the complaints and evidence of threats, “the State is not taking the appropriate measures.”

Global Witness: Brazil, Peru and Venezuela in critical situation

According to the 2023 Global Witness report, the majority of recorded attacks occurred in Latin America, especially in Brazil, Peru and Venezuela. 78% of cases occurred in the Amazon, where indigenous defenders face high rates of violence, criminalization and impunity.

This situation was confirmed by the cases presented in Peru, Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, Bolivia, Honduras and Venezuela, as well as by national, international and regional organizations that are members of the Latin American Alliance of Defenders of Indigenous Territories (ALADTI).

Specifically, the representative of the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA), Fany Kuiru, indicated that indigenous defenders, especially in the Amazon, face high rates of violence, criminalization and impunity.

“The most important thing for COICA is the underreporting of murders of indigenous defenders. When they are recognized leaders, the murder and the threat are more visible, but defenders without much visibility are sometimes not included in the registers of risk situations due to the lack of trust in the States, and they end up being one more number among those killed and threatened,” he explained.

In her speech she also referred to the case of Olivia Bisa, president of the Autonomous Territorial Government of the Chapra Nation, who was threatened with death for having reported the oil spill at kilometer 177 of the northern branch oil pipeline, in the district of Morona, province of Datem del Marañón, in Loreto. Despite this, the State’s poor response capacity and lack of coordination of protection mechanisms for the defender prevail.