Ashéninka Leader Killed Defending Territory From Illegal Oil Extraction in Peru

In the forests of Peru's Ucayali region, Ashéninka leader Américo Pascuala Tumisha was shot and killed while patrolling the boundaries of his community's territory — boundaries that were legally recognized, formally documented, and ultimately undefended by the state. He died confronting illegal copaiba oil extractors whose presence had been reported to authorities for years without meaningful response. His death is not an isolated tragedy but the latest chapter in a long and documented pattern: Indigenous peoples granted rights on paper, then left alone to enforce them with their lives. More t