Four leaders and a leader of the Kakataibo indigenous people, in the Peruvian Amazon, received threats simultaneously after denouncing the presence of drug trafficking in their territories through illicit crops of coca leaf, raw material to obtain cocaine; and clandestine landing tracks for the planes that take the drug.
“One by one will fall”, He said one of the messages received on September 8 via Facebook by the leaders of the Aguaytia, Kakataibo communities and representatives of Fenacoka, followed by a threatening “They will shed blood”, as the Native Federation of Kakataibo communities (Fenacoka) warned in a statement.
After The identification of illegal crops and clandestine clues in the Kakaitaibo Norte and South Reserve, in the Amazonian Department of Ucayali, the Fenacoka and the indigenous guard of the Kakataibo people of Peru (Gipkap), their body of territorial protection, maintain a permanent patrol of the territory, with terrestrial and aerial supervision.
In legal response, the Director of Policies and Human Rights Management of the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights of Peru, Diego Martín Reátegui, asked the Ucayali police chief protection for threatened leaders and their families, who have been given personal guarantees, as part of the human rights defenders protection system.
The official requested preventive measures against an eventual attack against the five involved, such as police patrols, determination of an emergency focal point, among other forecasts that they deepen developed, to develop, to guarantee the protection of citizens and their family circle ”, He expressed in his request Reátegui.
Also recalled that, All of them report risk situations since 2020, as a consequence of their work to defense indigenous peoples, the right to environment and collective rights.
This petition is supported by article 16 of the ‘Intersectoral Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders’, where the Ministry of Justice and Rights are entrusted to carry out permanent monitoring of possible risk situations that affect the Activities of human rights defenders and boost the corresponding actions.
In addition to legal requests, the Fenacoka raised dialogue tables provided by the Office of Conflict Management of the Regional Government of Huánuco against the solution of conflicts in the territory.
In its statement, the Federation maintains the security of the communities of the Amazonian villages of Kakataibo, Shipibo and Asháninka, And they warned that “they are united and on a maximum alert, they will continue mobilized to provide protection while we continue to fight to stop the invasions of our ancestral territories.”
