Upcoming trial of environmental rights defenders who protect Chaparri
On 12 August 2022, a public trial will be held against six environmental rights defenders and members of the Frente de Defensa Salvemos Chaparrí (Save Chaparrí Defense Front) on the unsubstantiated charge of "altering the environment or landscape". The trial will take place in the Second Supraprovincial Unipersonal Criminal Court of Chiclayo in the Lambayeque region and could result in a four-year prison sentence.
Frente de Defensa Salvemos Chaparrí (Save Chaparrí Defense Front), is an organisation of members of Santa Catalina de Chongoyape community and of Asociación para la Conservación de la Naturaleza y Turismo Sostenible Chaparri - ACOTURCH (Association for the Conservation of Nature and Sustainable Tourism) dedicated to the defense and conservation of the natural reserve "Área de Conservación Privada Chaparrí". The Chaparrí reserve, located between Lambayeque and Cajamarca regions, was created in 2001 as the first Private Conservation Area (ACP) of Peru, to protect more than 34 thousand hectares of tropical dry forests and endangered animals, such as the spectacled bear and the Aliblanca turkey. These vast natural reserve is under threat by "land dealers's" the illegal activities, such as usurpation, occupation of land and fraudulent change of land use, which often result in violent confrontations.
Community members part of the Defense Front have denounced that, over the last few years, they have been targets of harassment, verbal and physical violence, monitoring, arbitrary separation from the community and death threats. On 30 December 2017, Lieutenant Governor José Napoleón Tarrillo Astonitas, a community leader in El Mirador village who opposed the entry of people foreign to the community, was murdered in his home. After the murder of José Tarrillo, the threats and harassment against the members of the Defense Front have increased.
On 12 August 2022, a public trial will be held against six environmental rights defenders and members of the Frente de Defensa Salvemos Chaparrí (Save Chaparrí Defense Front) on the unsubstantiated charge of "altering the environment or landscape". The trial will take place in the Second Supraprovincial Unipersonal Criminal Court of Chiclayo in the Lambayeque region and could result in a four-year prison sentence.
Download the Urgent Appeal Here
Hermenegildo Torres Perales, Porfirio Torres Perales, Segundo Fabián Culqui Mendoza, Dociteo Tafur Díaz, Américo Laboreano Ramos and Juan de Dios Carrasco Fernández are members of the Campesino community Muchik Santa Catalina de Chongoyape, the Frente de Defensa Salvemos Chaparrí and the Asociación para la Conservación de la Naturaleza y Turismo Sostenible Chaparri (Association for the Conservation of Nature and Sustainable Tourism) dedicated to the conservation and protection of the nature reserve "Área de Conservación Privada Chaparrí". The Chaparri Reserve was recognised in 2001 as the first Private Conservation Area (ACP) in Peru, with the aim of protecting more than 34,000 hectares of tropical dry forests and endangered animals, such as the Andean bear and the white-winged turkey.
On 27 January 2021, the six defenders learned through the local press and social networks that the Specialised Provincial Prosecutor's Office for Environmental Matters of Lambayeque had opened an investigation against them.
The criminalisation of the six defenders is part of an alarming pattern of violence against the legitimate work of the Frente de Defensa Salvemos Chaparrí and the Comunidad Campesina Muchik Santa Catalina de Chongoyape. Over the years, members of the community have reported being targets of harassment, verbal and physical violence, surveillance, arbitrary separation from the community and death threats by organised criminal groups dedicated to land grabbing, in retaliation for their opposition to the interests of those seeking to building dams in protected territory.
Despite the fact that since March 2018 the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Justice recognised the defence work of the members of the Frente de Defensa Salvemos Chaparrí and granted personal protection measures in their favour, environmental defenders continue to face a serious escalation of risks in retaliation for their work from unknown entities. There has been no effective implementation of protection measures or investigation into those behind the attacks.
Front Line Defenders expresses deep concern at the upcoming trial of environmental rights defenders Hermenegildo Torres Perales, Porfirio Torres Perales, Segundo Fabián Culqui Mendoza, Dociteo Tafur Díaz, Américo Laboreano Ramos and Juan de Dios Carrasco Fernández and condemns the criminalisation process against them.
Front Line Defenders believes that the criminalisation of environmental rights defenders seeks to hinder their valuable work in defence of environmental and land rights in the country and reiterates its concern at the discouraging message this sends to those carrying out human rights work in Peru.
Front Line Defenders urges the Peruvian State to take all necessary measures to protect the safety of the human rights defenders and to ensure that the judicial system is not misused as a tool to delegitimise and obstruct the work of environmental and land rights defenders in Peru.
