Ashéninka leader Américo Pascuala Tumisha was shot and killed on Sunday while patrolling the territory of the Onconashari Indigenous community in Peru’s Ucayali region. According to the Regional Organization AIDESEP Ucayali (ORAU), Pascuala encountered people who were allegedly extracting copaiba oil without permission inside the community’s territory. A confrontation followed, and he was fatally shot. Pascuala was serving as coordinator of Onconashari’s territorial surveillance committee at the time of his death. He was previously chief of the community. Unauthorized copaiba extraction had been reported in the area since at least 2020. A 2023 report by the Peruvian nonprofit Derecho, Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (DAR) found that a group from the nearby Nueva Luz de Arara community had been entering Onconashari and the neighboring Murunahua Indigenous Reserve without the community’s permission to extract copaiba oil. The reserve was created to protect Indigenous peoples living in isolation and initial contact. The report said some extractors threatened Onconashari residents after they complained. Community authorities then reported the incursions to their Indigenous federation, Peru’s Ministry of Culture, and the police. Joint patrols followed in late 2022. Copaiba extraction in the area expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic, when cash was scarce and buyers from Pucallpa arrived in the Yurúa area, according to the report. The oil is tapped from copaiba trees and used in traditional medicine and commercial products. Government records show patrol and surveillance work around Onconashari as early as 2014. In August 2025, the Ucayali regional government formally recognized Onconashari’s Forest Surveillance and…This article was originally published on Mongabay
