New York Times reporter Andy Revkin reports on the murder of Julio García Agapito” a community leader from the Madre de Dios region of
On February 26″ 2008″ Julio García Agapito alerted Peruvian authorities to a truck hauling illegally harvested mahogany. The authorities” including the Peruvian national police” intercepted the truck and began unloading its cargo until a man with extra keys to the vehicle commandeered it and drove it from the scene. As police pursued the fleeing truck” Julio García Agapito remained in the INRENA agency offices. Within minutes he was dead” shot ten times by a collaborator in the illegal logging operation who then immediately fled to Bolivia.
Unfortunately” the untimely death of Julio García Agapito is not an isolated incident. As Revkin reports” it is but “the latest to illustrate how the lack of governance on the world’s remaining resource frontiers threatens both ecological integrity and human rights.”
Read Revkin's article in its entirety here.