““We Are Ready to Kill”: Threats Against Santa Clara de Uchunya Intensify Following Court Order Against Palm Oil Company” - 26 January, 2018

Leaders from the Shipibo community of Santa Clara de Uchunya, Peru, have reported a spike in violent threats and intimidation in the weeks following a court injunction against the palm oil company responsible for appropriating and deforesting more than 7,000 hectares of their ancestral territory…Carlos Hoyos Soria, chief of Santa Clara de Uchunya, reported two separate incidents which occurred during January. On the night of 5 January 2018, two armed and hooded persons arrived at the home of a community elder, whose house lies on the periphery of the village closest to the expanding plantations. They went on to question his daughter-in-law, who was alone at the house, asking whether she was a community member. Concerned for her safety, she denied this. They then showed her a shotgun and told her they were looking for the community leaders and any community members, because “we are ready to kill”…Subsequently, on the night of 20 January, several hooded figures made an attempted attack against the same household. Hoyos summed up the reality facing families in Santa Clara de Uchunya as "death threats, direct gunshots at point-blank range and constant harassment.”…[refers to Palmas de Pucallpa, part of Palmas del Peru]