"Welcome to the land without law. The only law here is the law of the gun." Asassinated Ashéninka tribal leader Edwin Chota speaking in 2014

“Communities that take a stand against environmental destruction are now in the firing line of companies’ private security guards, state forces and contract killers. For every land and environmental defender who is killed, many more are threatened with death, eviction and destruction of their resources. “These are not isolated incidents. They are symptomatic of a systematic assault on remote and indigenous communities by state and corporate actors.” Billy Kyte, Global Witness

Environmental activist Olivia Arévalo Lomas of the Shipibo Konibo Indigenous people of Peru was assassinated April 19, 2018 with five shots to her heart, Cultural Survival reported. She was murdered in her home in the Amazon rainforest community of Victoria Gracia located 20 minutes from the town of Yarinacocha, in front of her family according to witnesses. Her death is part of a surge of murders against environmental activists worldwide. Peru, has the 4th highest murder rate. She died in the defense of all of us, protecting the lungs of the Earth with only the power of her voice.

Most of the victims of environmentally motivated violence are grass-roots leaders who stand up for their communities when threatened by environmental calamity. Most of the resources that the industrialized world desires, is in poor countries with large swaths of indigenous lands. “There’s a resource that someone wants, people are displaced to get it. They organize and speak up, and their leaders are killed. It’s happening all around the world, and it needs to be investigated.”

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2007 bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Peru and the United States. It is shocking and disturbing. The Hill provides a background on the

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" Cultural Survival