Peru Court Hands Lengthy Prison Terms for Killing of Indigenous Amazon Defender

A Peruvian court sentenced four men for the 2023 murder-for-hire of Quinto Inuma Alvarado, a 50-year-old Kichwa leader from Santa Rosillo de Yanayacu in the San Martin region. Genix Saboya Saboya and Limber Ríos Ruiz received 35 years each; timber operator Segundo Juan Villalobos Guevara, accused of ordering the killing, was given 28 years and four months; accomplice Jerly Saboya Saboya received 15 years. The court also ordered compensation of 750,000 soles for Inuma’s heirs and 250,000 soles for Axeldina Barbarán Tapullima, the woman wounded in the attack. The defendants have five days to file an appeal.

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Inuma had spent years denouncing illegal logging, drug trafficking, and land-grabbing on his community’s territory. Between 2016 and 2023 his community filed 13 complaints with prosecutors over environmental crimes. Although the Justice Ministry classified him as high-risk in 2021 and granted police protection, authorities later admitted they lacked boats and funds to patrol the remote area. The killing occurred as he returned by boat from a national meeting of environmental and land defenders. A day before the verdict, another Indigenous leader, Américo Pascuala Tomisha, was shot dead while patrolling his community in the Ucayali region, undersc coring ongoing threats.

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Prosecutors argued that Inuma was targeted because of his efforts to stop illegal logging on his community’s land. The trial began in January and lasted nearly eight months, with judges traveling from Lima to Tarapoto for three days of hearings that included testimony from Inuma’s relatives and a survivor of the attack. The court’s lengthy sentences are the first of their kind in Peru for the killing of an Indigenous defender, a fact highlighted by legal observers.

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Tom Younger, Peru program coordinator at the Forest Peoples Program, called the sentences “a decisive step toward justice” and said they demonstrate that impunity “is not inevitable.” Cristina Gavancho, a lawyer with the Lima-based Legal Defense Institute, described the ruling as “exemplary” and emphasized its potential as a precedent for future cases. Inuma’s son, Kevin Arnol Inuma, expressed mixed feelings, noting that the state’s prior inaction had emboldened killers but that the verdict could set a new standard for Indigenous peoples.

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Despite the convictions, Inuma’s family says they still feel unsafe, fearing that any future release of the convicted could reignite threats. The case remains appealable, and Indigenous groups continue to call for stronger protection measures amid persistent illegal extraction activities along Peru’s Amazonian frontiers.

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• “I think this emblematic case can serve as a precedent for other cases involving environmental defenders in Peru,” — Cristina Gavancho, a lawyer with the Lima-based Legal Defense Institute

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