"UPCOMING TRIAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RIGHTS DEFENDERS WHO PROTECT CHAPARRI", 10 August 2022

...On 12 August 2022, a public trial will be held against six environmental rights defenders and members of the Frente de Defensa Salvemos Chaparrí (Save Chaparrí Defense Front) on the unsubstantiated charge of "altering the environment or landscape". The trial...could result in a four-year prison sentence.

Hermenegildo Torres Perales, Porfirio Torres Perales, Segundo Fabián Culqui Mendoza, Dociteo Tafur Díaz, Américo Laboreano Ramos and Juan de Dios Carrasco Fernández are members of the Campesino community Muchik Santa Catalina de Chongoyape, the Frente de Defensa Salvemos Chaparrí and the Asociación para la Conservación de la Naturaleza y Turismo Sostenible Chaparri (Association for the Conservation of Nature and Sustainable Tourism) dedicated to the conservation and protection of the nature reserve "Área de Conservación Privada Chaparrí"....

The criminalisation of the six defenders is part of an alarming pattern of violence against the legitimate work of the Frente de Defensa Salvemos Chaparrí and the Comunidad Campesina Muchik Santa Catalina de Chongoyape. Over the years, members of the community have reported being targets of harassment, verbal and physical violence, surveillance, arbitrary separation from the community and death threats...in retaliation for their opposition to the interests of those seeking to building dams in protected territory...