Last week, Indigenous leader José Hugo Briones Taricuarima was shot while hunting in the forest. Despite his injuries, he managed to return to the community center, where he received aid and helped raise the alarm.
This attack is yet another example of the growing violence against Indigenous communities as criminal economies expand across the Amazon – a reality that fellow leader Miguel Guimaraes from Flor de Ucayali denounced at the United Nations that same week.
Just months earlier, Amazon Watch had visited Flor de Ucayali to install a new solar-powered high-speed internet system as part of our Power to the Protectors initiative. This program, in partnership with Empowered by Light and FECONAU, brought similar installations to 14 other communities. The system has now proven critical to the community’s safety.
Immediately after José Briones returned to the village, local leaders used the system to report the attack, demand government protection, and request urgent medical attention. They also contacted our Amazon Defenders Fund (ADF) to request an emergency grant for transportation to the nearest hospital – a four-hour journey by boat.
Flor de Ucayali has endured increasing pressure from drug traffickers since 2021. Indigenous organizations believe this attack was a reprisal for the community’s recent efforts to revive its Forest Patrol Committee and for joint police and military operations that destroyed illegal coca fields in the area.
In response, Indigenous organizations Aidesep, ORAU, and Feconau organized a delegation and traveled to Flor de Ucayali to hold an emergency assembly an agreed on the creation of Flor de Ucayali’s “Self-defense System,” which will include permanent forest patrolling, self-defense protocols, and direct communication with national authorities.
Indigenous organizations and allies, including the Instituto de Defensa Legal, have denounced the weakening of Peru’s national protection mechanism for human rights defenders and the government’s failure to curb coca cultivation in Indigenous territories.
At Amazon Watch, we remain steadfast in our commitment to support frontline communities like Flor de Ucayali through emergency grants and long-term partnerships. We will continue to advocate for stronger protection policies and community-led strategies from Amazonian governments and the international community.
