“'Unprecedented' murder charges for loggers in deaths of indigenous activists”, 31^st October 2019

…Ashaninka men, identified by locals as illegal loggers, tie tree trunks together to move them along the Putaya River. Authorities in Peru said they have charged five men in the timber industry with homicide in the deaths of indigenous activists…

Prosecutors in Peru have charged five men in the timber industry with the 2014 murders of four indigenous activists who had battled illegal logging in the Amazon jungle.

Two timber executives and three loggers have been charged with the shooting deaths of the activists, the prosecutor Otoniel Jara, who works in Peru’s remote Ucayali region, told the Associated Press on Wednesday.

Environmentalists say the case is unprecedented in Peru, where years of illegal logging and, on occasion, suspected attacks by those carrying it out have often been met with an ineffectual response from authorities.

“We hope that the legacy of the victims of this massacre can lead to justice,” said Tom Bewick, of Rainforest Foundation US, a group that funded efforts to bring the alleged killers to justice.

Bewick said he hoped the case would “set an example for other indigenous environmental defenders across the world”…