"Judge dismisses the criminal case of environmental defenders protecting Chaparrí", 14 April 2025

...On 8 April 2025, the Second Unipersonal Criminal Court of Chiclayo dismissed the criminal case against six environmental defenders members of the Frente de Defensa Salvemos Chaparrí (Save Chaparrí Defense Front), based on the grounds that the statute of limitations had expired.

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, and the Asociación para la Conservación de la Naturaleza y Turismo Sostenible Chaparri (Chaparri Association for the Conservation of Nature and Sustainable Tourism). They are also members of the Frente de Defensa Salvemos Chaparrí, an organisation dedicated to the defence and conservation of the "Área de Conservación Privada Chaparrí" natural reserve located between the Lambayeque and Cajamarca regions. The reserve was created in 2001 as the first Private Conservation Area (ACP) of Peru, to protect more than 34 thousand hectares of tropical dry forests and endangered animals, such as the spectacled bear and the Aliblanca turkey.

In January 2021, the Specialised Provincial Prosecutor's Office for Environmental Matters of Lambayeque filed an accusation request against the six defenders, based on unsubstantiated charges of "altering the environment or landscape" of the ACP Chaparrí. These accusations took place within a context of ongoing harassment, surveillance and violence against the defenders, who had been targeted by criminal groups dedicated to land grabbing as well as groups that had occupied that land for private interests such as monoculture farms. The defenders also faced threats and reprisals due to their opposition to the construction of the “La Montería” dam within the ecological reserve of Chaparrí, promoted by the Regional Government of Lambayeque and the Ministry of Agriculture...

...Despite the favourable ruling, the judge also ordered the defenders to pay civil reparations of five thousand soles each. The legal defence have filed an appeal against this order...