April 20, 2018-

A traditional healer and elder Olivia Arévalo Lomas of the Shipibo Konibo Indigenous people of Peru was assassinated yesterday with five shots to the heart. The unknown assailants killed her in her home in the community of Victoria Gracia located 20 minutes from the town of Yarinacocha, in front of her family and in the presence of children.



Cultural Survival joins FECONAU and COSHICOX, the highest authority of the Shipibo people, in strongly condemning these this bloodshed that is mourned by her family and the Shipibo people as a whole.

FECONAU AND COSHICOX call for national and international solidarity in calling on the Peruvian state to bring those responsible to justice, and to provide guarantees for the safety of two other Indigenous leaders of the Shipibo Konibo people who today face death threats and harassment.



Video: Press Conference with COSHICOX, live at the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples Issues in New York, interviewed by Indigenous K'iche communicator Avexnim Cojtí of Cultural Survival.

Read the COSHICOX press release in Spanish, here.

In addition to the attach on Lomas, the following written death threat against another Shipibo female healer reads: "Señora y Sr Magdalena Florez Agustín, Bernardo Murayari Ochavano You have 48 hours to flee. One bullet for each of you and if you don't do as told there will be the consequence that more bullets will rain down on you"