And the hours go by: more than a month after the murder of Quinto Inuma, his family is still waiting for justice.

Quinto Inuma Alvarado dedicated his life to defending the territory of the Santa Rosillo community, located in the district of Huimbayoc in the province of San Martín, in an area infested with people and criminal organisations involved in activities linked to illegal economies (logging, land trafficking and drug trafficking) and where the nearest police station is more than twelve hours away from the community. The community's territory was under serious threat, and to confront this, they organised surveillance and defence activities for the communal forests that exist in their territory.

Through this surveillance work, Quinto Inuma was able to confirm the presence of illegal activities in the area, and always informed the authorities of the justice system: he had filed more than 13 complaints for forest destruction to investigate alleged environmental crimes in the communal territory, but there were no significant results, as the remoteness and access to the community's area was always a limiting factor for access to effective environmental justice.

These alleged activities are allegedly carried out by people who also live in the community (settlers), who encourage the disunity of the community, and have generated serious delays in the titling procedure of the Indigenous community. For this reason, the apu intensified his territorial defence activities to achieve the long-awaited titling of the territory.

The consequences of Quinto’s confrontation with the illegal activities that had been taking place in the community's territory were a series of attacks since 2018 against him and his family in order to intimidate him and make him give up his struggle. For this reason, he requested the activation of the early warning procedure for human rights defenders[i], which was activated more than five months later by the Ministry of Justice through Directorial Resolution No. 003-2021-JUS/DGDH, in which the Peruvian State committed to implement protection actions that included:

• Communication with the competent authorities for timely police protection.
• Public visit by officials of the Directorate General of Human Rights with the participation of other State entities (Ministry of the Interior or others), to meet with members of the Indigenous community, as well as with local and regional authorities to raise awareness of the risk situation faced by human rights defenders engaged in the defence of the environment or their communal lands.
• Inform the Regional Government of San Martin about the institutional concern for the legal security of the territory of the Indigenous community of Santa Rosillo de Yanayacu and the procedure that will allow for the legal registration of their territory.

All these actions are still awaiting implementation and could not protect the apu Quinto Inuma, who in life knocked on every possible door to be able to have peace in his community, but who could not even have police protection. And so it was that on the fateful 29 November these threats materialised and ended his life, with the full acquiescence of the State, which despite the alerts and complaints did not effectively implement any protection measures. What is more, while he was alive, the apu was waiting for the ministers to visit his community, and it is surprising that only after his murder did the resources appear that he was told were not available to reach the area.

Today at least the family, the community and the Kichwa people hope that the justice system will respond quickly and not allow the atmosphere of impunity that prevails in Santa Rosillo de Yanayacu to allow yet another community member to be murdered, as today they are at the mercy of those allegedly responsible for the murder of the apu and they walk freely around the community, intimidating and threatening the community members who are still in the area waiting for justice that is not forthcoming.

The case of Quinto Inuma should serve as a point of rupture and reflection on how the mechanism for the protection of human rights defenders has functioned, as the protection measures were never made effective. In the face of his murder, the Public Prosecutor's Office and the Peruvian National Police must fulfil their role of identifying, investigating and seeking to punish the alleged perpetrators as quickly as possible. It is surprising how, more than a month after the event, the family is still waiting for justice, which seems further away every day.

The question we ask ourselves in this situation is: what more does the Public Prosecutor's Office need to take action against those responsible? Let's hope that this is not another unfortunate situation, as the risk scenario in the community increases with each passing day.

[i] In the framework of the Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders under the responsibility of MINJUS.