On September 1, 2014, four Amazon forest defenders were murdered with shotguns in a ravine on the Peru-Brazil border. They had reported for years that illegal loggers had threatened them with death for denouncing their secret activities, but the Peruvian state ignored them. With the crime, Edwin Chota Valera, Leoncio Quintisima Meléndez, Jorge Ríos Pérez and Francisco Pinedo Ramírez received the attention they deserved in life. The tragedy inspired a documentary (“Blood, Sweat and Trees” by American filmmaker Robert Curran), a book (“Wars of the Interior” by Peruvian chronicler Joseph Zárate) and dozens of journalistic pieces, achieving what the leaders had asked for in five months . Decades: that their homeland, the indigenous community of Alto Tamaya-Saweto in the Ucayali region, was granted land titles for 76,800 hectares of forest, thereby establishing that it was the property of the Asháninkas who inhabited it.
Julia Pérez, widow of Edwing Chota. Sebastian Castaneda
The legal battle to punish those guilty of the quadruple murder has just suffered a setback that has outraged families and civil society and created a general feeling of impunity. On August 29, the First Criminal Appeal Chamber of the Ucayali Court overturned the first instance verdict that sentenced Hugo Soria Flores, José Estrada Huayta, the Brazilian Eurico Mapes Gómez and the brothers Segundo and Josimar Atachi Felix to 28 years in prison. Soria and Estrada are accused of being the intellectual authors and Atachi Felix and Mapes Gómez are accused of carrying it out. The reason, the judges argued, was that there was a lack of evidence and errors and shortcomings were made in the first decision.
The lawyers’ decision to reset the trial and allow the defendants to continue trial in freedom has earned the opposition of the authorities of the indigenous peoples. “The Peruvian justice system is hardly prepared to arrest and punish those responsible, and it implies that the path to impunity is becoming ever wider. The state’s lack of will to defend indigenous peoples and human rights is also being questioned,” says Jorge Pérez Rubio, president of the Inter-Ethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Jungle (AIDESEP).
For his part, Jamer López, chairman of ORAU, AIDESEP’s counterpart in Ucayali, has called on the international community to pay attention to the case, which has been dragging on for almost a decade. “The lives of our Amazon brothers mean nothing to the state because this court decision gives them free rein to continue murdering us; It is a clear path for loggers and illegal activities. “We are beaten, but not defeated,” he emphasizes.
Photo of Ashaninka leader Edwin Chota.Sebastián Castañeda
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Lita Rojas, the widow of Leoncio Quintisima Meléndez, traveled for three days by boat from Alto Tamaya – Saweto to the city of Pucallpa to hear the court’s decision. Faced with the verdict, he immediately traveled to Lima to express his anger and disappointment. He did it with Julia Pérez, wife of Edwin Chota, the great leader of the community; Ergilia Rengifo, wife of Jorge Ríos, and Lina Ruiz, eldest daughter of Francisco Pinedo. Lina’s mother, Adelina Vargas, died last year while waiting for justice to knock on her door.
It is the first days of September and the four women are about to return to the jungle. They had a busy day meeting with representatives from the Ministry of Justice and Culture. You can see that in the expression on her face and the brevity of her words. For nine years they have told their drama countless times, but it is too late for them too. It is eight o’clock at night, the time when people fall asleep in the forest. It will be a while before these Ashaninka leaders say a few things.
“We will continue to fight. But only God knows if we can do it,” says Lita Rojas, wearing a cushma, a tunic that characterizes the Asháninkas. When Leoncio Quintisima was murdered by illegal loggers, she had to raise four children. The last one was barely a year old when the accident happened. Like his father, his name is Leoncio and he often asks about him. Furthermore, Lita is the only one of the four who continues to live in the community. The rest went to Pucallpa, fearing reprisals from the murderers.
Relatives of the Asháninka leaders assassinated in 2014.Sebastián Castañeda
“Everything has returned to the beginning. It has taken so much time to denounce the loggers who are destroying our forests and so far there is no justice for us. I am very sad and with this feeling I return to my city,” intervenes Ergilia Rengifo. She was the one who took her husband and the other three leaders by boat on an eight-hour trip across the Tamaya River the day before the attack. They were on their way to the native community of Apiwxta on the border with Brazil in Acre state, where they would meet with Brazilian leaders who had joined their fight against the illegal timber trade. Ergilia, who raised nine children, remembers that at that time a bird called Chicua, which is usually a bad omen, screamed for several minutes, perhaps announcing the attack. Although he tried, he couldn’t escape what fate had in store for them.
Julia Pérez, who looks after her last child, the daughter of her new engagement, seems distant. Her ex-husband Edwin Chota was the voice of the people of Saweto without being an Asháninka. He taught the community and gave it the impetus to demand what was just. Proof of this is the courage of Lina Ruiz, daughter of Francisco Pinedo: “When we indigenous people remain silent, it is as if we do not exist. I’m going to keep going with all of this because it can’t be possible. The murderers of my father and his friends are currently walking free on the streets. And we? “We cannot return to our homes because they might kill us.”
Lina Ruíz, daughter of Francisco Pinedo. Sebastian Castaneda
Lina thanks her father for teaching her how to fish and how to hunt partridges with an arrow. Knowing that it is usually only instilled in men. The clearest memory he has of him is drinking his masato – a fermented cassava mixture – after a tiring day and asking his children: Are they full? With a full stomach, Francisco Pinedo showed them his affection.
Nine years later, their fight has returned to the starting point. But they have no plans to take a step back.
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