An environmental activist who fights the predation of the Amazon was killed in the Peruvian Jungle, the authorities announced on Sunday, July 27.
Hipolito Quispehuaman was killed on Saturday night when driving a vehicle to transport products in a section of the interoceanic road in the Santa Rosa sector of the Madre de Dios region, according to Justice. The environmentalist was a member of the Management Committee of the Tamopata National Reserve.
A murder in retaliation for its environmental commitment
“The preliminary hypothesis retained by the prosecutor’s office is that this murder would have committed in retaliation with the defense work he was doing,” the local prosecutor, Karen Torres, was an investigation of the press.
“I ask for justice for the death of my brother, this kind of thing cannot happen,” said Angel Quispehuaman to the press.
The National Human Rights Coordinator (CNDDHH) of the country “condemned the murder and demanded that the Peruvian State take urgent and effective measures to protect the life and work of human rights defenders.” “No more dead! That is the murders!” This body reacted on the social network X.
The Ministry of Justice on the other hand committed X to “work for the defense of the victims, so that this crime does not remain unpunished.”
Increasingly frequent attacks
In July 2024, Native Environmental activist Mariano Isacama had been killed in the Amazon region of Ucayali (497 km east of Lima). The attacks against environmental defenders have multiplied in recent years in the Amazon regions of Peru, where the presence of national authorities is rare.
Indigenous peoples face the presence of drug traffickers and illegal mining that leads to the deforestation of the Amazon region.
According to the NGO Global Witness, at least 54 environmental defenders have been killed in Peru since 2012, more than half of which were members of the native peoples.
Source: BFM TV
