Elita Yopla Herrera is a land and environmental defender and member of the Cajamarca Peasant Patrols (Rondas Campesinas de Cajamarca).

Since 2014, Elita Yopla and her husband, defender César Estrada Chuquilín, have denounced that they have been victims of monitoring, death threats and attacks against their physical and psychological integrity for denouncing and opposing the possible environmental damage caused by the Conga Mining Project of the Yanacocha, S.R.L. company.

On 1 June 2024, at 12:15 a.m., three armed men reportedly tried to approach the home of Elita Yopla, in the district of Huasmín, in Cajamarca; thanks to the barking of dogs, eight ronderos who were guarding the area became aware of the threat. A few metres away from the place, the ronderos observed that two armed men were trying to enter the house and that there was another unidentified armed man about 50 metres away from the others, who, when illuminated by a spotlight and realising that they had been discovered by the ronderos, fired directly at them, without causing any impact due to the distance between them.