Prosecutors say timber operator ordered 2023 killing; receives 28-year term
A Peruvian court on Monday convicted four men of murder-for-hire for the November 2023 killing of Kichwa Indigenous leader Quinto Inuma Alvarado, sentencing the defendants to prison terms ranging from 15 to 35 years, according to the Associated Press.
Two of the convicted defendants — Genix Saboya Saboya and Limber Ríos Ruiz — each received 35-year prison terms. Timber operator Segundo Juan Villalobos Guevara, whom prosecutors accused of ordering the killing, was sentenced to 28 years and four months. A fourth defendant, Jerly Saboya Saboya, was convicted as an accomplice and received a 15-year term.
Inuma, 50, was shot and killed on Nov. 29, 2023, as he returned by boat to his community of Santa Rosillo de Yanayacu in Peru’s northern Amazonian region of San Martin after attending a national meeting of environmental and land defenders, the AP reported. A woman who was traveling with Inuma at the time was also shot and wounded in the same attack.
The AP characterized the case as closely watched for what it would signal about Peru’s accountability for violence against Indigenous and environmental defenders in the Amazon.