Kichwa Indigenous Defender Quinto Inuma Murdered Amidst the Peruvian State’s Inaction and Negligence

The Amazonian Indigenous movement is in collective mourning for the loss of Quinto Inuma Alvarado, a much admired and prominent Kichwa leader of the Santa Rosillo de Yanayacu community, in the San Martin region of the northern Peruvian Amazon. Quinto Inuma was a tireless defender of the human rights and territory of his community. Because of that he was murdered by hooded men on his way back from an event in the city of Pucallpa, Ucayali. This killing, which Quinto Inuma himself had repeatedly demanded State action to prevent, highlights the vulnerability of Indigenous leaders who face constant threats in the region. 

 

"So many years of suffering, I see no results. What have we received? Physical and psychological abuse. For the Peruvian state, with the corruption that exists today, informality trumps legality. If we assert our legal rights, they don't believe us. Illegality wins. That's the country we live in", Quinto Inuma Alvatado in 2020 in a report Ending Impunity  

 

The Coordinating Committee for the Development and Defence of the Indigenous Peoples of the San Martin Region - CODEPISAM, and its local federations, as well as the national Amazonian Indigenous organisation AIDESEP, and the pan-Amazonian COICA, all express their deepest sorrow and anger at this loss that has shocked the entire Amazonian Indigenous movement. Because of this tragic and avoidable episode, the community has lost an irreplaceable human rights defender who dedicated his life to protecting his ancestral lands and fighting for justice. 

The heartbreaking killing exposes the reality of an utterly ineffective State system that failed to safeguard the life of an Indigenous leader. Quinto Inuma knocked on every possible institutional door available to him in search of protection. His killing reveals the painful truth of the Peruvian State’s inaction and ineffectiveness in protecting indigenous leaders lives and upholding indigenous peoples’ rights in San Martin and throughout the Peruvian Amazon, where, according to AIDESEP, more than 30 land defenders have been assassinated.  

The Indigenous movement of San Martin holds the State directly responsible for the tragedy that has robbed a community of a courageous defender.  The lack of effective coordination and the fragmented response of the State resulted in a total absence of preventive measures that could have avoided this awful tragedy. Quinto had received previous threats since 2017, and demanded State action, but the State’s negligence ultimately cost him his life. 

Among the doors Quinto knocked on to try to stop and protect him from these threats were the Ombudsman's Office, the Congress of the Republic, and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. He succeeded in activating the Ministry of Justice’s early warning mechanism under its Protocol for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, but its measures were insufficient. He also sought action from the Special Prosecutor's Office for Environmental Matters (FEMA) and the Anti-Drugs Prosecutor's Office, but the prosecutorial proceedings were postponed twelve times. Despite all his valiant efforts, the ensuing measures were inadequate and ineffective, leaving Quinto exposed to continued threats that were eventually carried out and claimed his life. 

Quinto Inuma's life was threatened and taken because he defended his community’s rights and its territory. Delays in titling their land has left Kichwa communities in San Martin in a very vulnerable position, exposed to and unable to defend themselves from illegal logging, land trafficking and drug trafficking, with no legal consequences for the perpetrators. The death of Quinto Inuma highlights the impunity that prevails in cases of environmental crimes and violations of indigenous peoples’ rights, and the urgent need for immediate and effective measures to guarantee the protection of Indigenous communities in the region and the realization of their self-governance and land rights. 

The Amazonian Indigenous movement demands justice for Quinto Inuma Alvarado and the capture and exemplary punishment of those responsible for his murder. They also urge the Peruvian State to take immediate measures to find the Vice-Apu (leader) Meister Inuma Pérez, who is currently missing according to the testimonies of community members, to provide urgent medical attention to Axceldina Barbarán Tapullima, who was injured during Quito Inuma’s killing, and to provide psychological care and economic support to all her family and affected community members. 

CODEPISAM and the local federations urgently call on the Peruvian authorities to declare the districts of Huimbayoc, Chipurana and Papaplaya an emergency zone, prioritising the security of the leaders who face constant threats linked to illegal logging, drug trafficking and land trafficking. 

The death of Quinto Inuma Alvarado not only represents the loss of a brave Kichwa defender, but also serves as a wake-up call to the urgent need for concrete action to protect human rights defenders and Indigenous communities in the Amazon region. We at Forest Peoples Programme extend our heartfelt condolences and echo the Kichwa communities and Amazonian federations call for urgent action. The Peruvian Amazon cries out, and its lament resounds as a cry for justice that cannot and will not be ignored. 

Read statements from CODEPISAM and AIDESEP.