On a global press briefing, Marcelo Odicio along with Jackeline Odicio, heads of the Federation of Kakataibo Communities and the Federation of Katataibo Women respectively, stressed that if the justice system does not incarcerate the culprit for Isacama’s assassination, they won’t rest until, by their own, they find the responsible.

Representatives explained that those who used to threaten natives’ lives demanded them to stop denouncing the illegal presence of invaders and drug traffickers, who may even have influence with the police.

Both leaders claimed drug traffickers’ activities, which are evidenced by the construction of two clandestine landing strips for drug planes and the discovery of at least one drug processing laboratory.

They clarified that if the authorities do nothing in that regard, they would look for the assassins, apprehend them, and hand them over to the police; notwithstanding their presence is null in the territories affected by colonist invasions for illegal coca or oil palm cultivation, or timber exploitation.

Marcelo Odicio added that only in the extreme case that the siege of those intruders persists and the police do not safeguard the Kakataibo people, will they take more drastic measures, for which they lack firearms but would use their bows and arrows.

The representatives arrived in Lima to meet with Government authorities and raise the need for a thorough and prompt investigation into the assassination of Mariano Isacama, the sixth Kakataibo leader to be slaughtered since 2020.

They indicated that the first four deaths went unpunished because the investigations had been filed without success, and the fifth is about to expire in the same way.

They further demanded a greater presence of the police and the State to prevent illegal activities on their lands and in the neighboring nature reserve.

According to Marcelo Odicio, Isacama has been the 34th Amazonian leader assassinated by hitmen.

jrr/omr/jha/mrs