A Peruvian court has convicted four men of murder-for-hire and sentenced them to prison terms ranging from 15 to 35 years for the 2023 killing of Indigenous Kichwa leader and rainforest defender Quinto Inuma Alvarado. The ruling marks a significant legal milestone in addressing deadly violence against environmental defenders in the Peruvian Amazon.
Handed down on Monday evening, the verdict concludes a trial that began on January 20 and spanned nearly eight months. Judges previously traveled from Lima to the Amazonian city of Tarapoto in March to hear testimony from relatives, witnesses, and a survivor of the attack.
### Sentencing Details and Judicial Findings
The tribunal delivered varying sentences based on the roles determined by prosecutors during the proceedings. Genix Saboya Saboya and Limber Ríos Ruiz received the harshest penalties, being sentenced to 35 years each behind bars. Segundo Juan Villalobos Guevara, identified by prosecutors as a timber operator who ordered the killing, was sentenced to 28 years and four months. Jerly Saboya Saboya was convicted as an accomplice and sentenced to 15 years.
Inuma, who served as a leader in the community of Santa Rosillo de Yanayacu, was 50 years old when he was killed on November 29, 2023. He was shot dead while traveling by boat back to his community in the northern Amazonian region of San Martín after attending a national gathering of land and environmental defenders. A woman traveling alongside him, Axeldina Barbarán Tapullima, sustained gunshot wounds during the ambush.
Legal advocates and human rights organizations closely monitored the case, which reached its conclusion nearly 1,000 days after the killing. Cristina Gavancho, an attorney with the Lima-based Legal Defense Institute who has supported the victim’s family and local Indigenous organizations, described the decision as an exemplary ruling. According to Gavancho, these are the most severe prison sentences handed down in Peru for the killing of an Indigenous defender, establishing an important legal precedent for future environmental rights cases.
Tom Younger, the Peru program coordinator at the Forest Peoples Programme, called the outcome a decisive step toward justice, noting that it demonstrates that impunity for the murder of Indigenous defenders is not inevitable.
### Years of Denunciations and State Protection Gaps
Prosecutors maintained that Inuma was specifically targeted for his persistent campaigns against illegal logging operations encroaching on ancestral Kichwa territory. Prior to his death, Inuma had publicly denounced Villalobos over illicit timber extraction.
Records compiled by the Legal Defense Institute show that between 2016 and 2023, members of the Santa Rosillo de Yanayacu community filed 13 separate formal complaints with prosecutors concerning environmental crimes, drug trafficking, and territorial incursions. Inuma had spent years speaking out against these pressures, which have intensified as illegal logging, mining, drug trafficking, and land grabbing push deeper into remote Amazonian regions lacking a consistent state presence.
Official warnings regarding Inuma’s safety predated the attack. In 2021, Peru’s Justice Ministry classified the leader as facing high risk and ordered police protection for him and his brother. Local authorities also issued protection measures against illegal logging groups operating in the area. However, documents cited by the Legal Defense Institute indicate that police later conceded they were unable to execute preventive patrols across the remote territory due to difficult geography and a lack of funding for boats.
Kevin Arnol Inuma, the 30-year-old son of the slain leader, reflected on the verdict following the hearing. He stated that his family received the decision with a mixture of sorrow and relief after navigating a nearly three-year wait for accountability.
“Before, there was no response from the state, so they were not afraid to kill,” he said in a phone interview with the Associated Press immediately following the verdict. “Now this sets a precedent for Indigenous peoples, a precedent for environmental defenders.”
The trial’s conclusion unfolded against a backdrop of ongoing peril for land defenders in the region. Just one day before the court delivered its verdict, Américo Pascuala Tomisha, a 57-year-old Ashéninka Indigenous leader and former head of the Onconashari community, was shot dead.
