Police investigate killing of Peruvian environmental activist.
Peruvian authorities are investigating the killing of an Ashaninka Indian village leader and environmental activist along with three others.
The New York Times reports Edwin Chota, from the Ashaninka village of Saweto, Peru, was found dead, and an investigation is currently being carried out according to the authorities. He was a devoted advocate to the environment who had been fighting against the illegal loggers around his community.
Chota left his village near the Peruvian-Brazilian border on 31 August in order to meet some other Ashaninka leaders in another village, which is a few days walk away. There were three other Ashaninka leaders with him when he was attacked, according to the Times.
Days after Chota and the three other men left the village, residents of the community noticed vultures flying in circles. The villagers then went on to look for the bodies. A local man who found the bodies reported "bullet wounds." The bodies are yet to be recovered and authorities are flying to the area to do so. Chota and other members of the Ashaninka community had been receiving death threats from illegal loggers for their activities against illegal logging. He had just came back from the Peruvian capital where he was urging government to take action against illegal logging, Reuters reported. The brave advocate in an interview with the Times last year, said " The law doesn't reach where we live. They could kill us any time" Chota had been trying to have the authorities provide official land titles for native villagers. He believed the titles would give them a better chance at defending their land and the pristine forest. Illegal logging is an increasingly concerning phenomenon for the environment, especially for countries with Amazonian territory where government control is lacking. Often, authorities in such countries are corrupt or slow to take action. Eli Franco who works with the group called Forest Peoples Programme said " All of this could have been prevented if the government had listened." He also stated that villagers and Chota were tried of reporting so many death threats from illegal loggers, Reuters reports.
Native communities are especially vulnerable to the effects of illegal logging.
