“The Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Justice condemn the assassination of the indigenous leader of the Satipo District and Prefecture of the Junín Region (Peru), they express their solidarity with Santiago Contoricón Antúnez and his loved ones and the indigenous people of Ashaninka.”
Peruvian police said they had sent a special team of homicide detectives to Satipo to help with the investigation.
The leader of the Asháninka ethnic group died Saturday night after a suspected killer took several bullets to the head at his home in the small town of Puerto Ocopa, news sources in the Junín region reported.
“Last night the drug trade killed Santiago Contoricón,” Rubén Vargas, former interior minister and anti-drug policy expert, wrote on his Twitter account.
Puerto Ocopa, known by its acronym Vraem, located in the Río Tambo region in the valley formed by the Apurímac, Ene and Mantaro rivers, is Peru’s largest coca-growing region.
According to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the late head of Asháninka was a reference among his people when he led his people’s resistance against the Maoist guerrillas of Sendero Luminoso in Peru’s central jungle in the 1990s.
Last December, another indigenous leader fighting against Amazon destruction was shot dead in the jungles of central Peru.
Source: Ultimahora
Source link
Karen Clayton is a seasoned journalist and author at The Nation Update, with a focus on world news and current events. She has a background in international relations, which gives her a deep understanding of the political, economic and social factors that shape the global landscape. She writes about a wide range of topics, including conflicts, political upheavals, and economic trends, as well as humanitarian crisis and human rights issues.
