2 loggers killed in arrow attack by ‘isolated’ Amazon tribe

Members of an Amazonian tribe have shot dead two loggers in Peru. The attack, which involved the use of arrows, follows multiple warnings against the loggers. The Mashco-Piro tribe reportedly felt the logging project was invading their territory.

Last Thursday, members of the indigenous tribe opened fire near the Las Piedras River, killing two, wounding one and leaving two missing.

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“This is a completely preventable tragedy,” said Caroline Pearce, director of Survival International, a London-based human rights group that has launched a petition against the logger. “The Peruvian authorities have known for years that the area they were selling for logging was in fact Mashco-Piro territory.”

The logging company Maderera Canales Tahuamanu had lost its sustainability certificate just a day before the attacks due to its intrusion into the tribe’s territory in the Madre de Dios Territorial Reserve.

“By facilitating the logging and destruction of this rainforest, they are not only endangering the survival of the Mashco-Piro people, who are incredibly vulnerable to disease epidemics brought by outsiders, but they have also knowingly endangered the lives of the loggers,” Pearce said.

The Mashco-Piro tribe has a violent history with tourists and other indigenous groups, according to some reports. They have reportedly fired arrows and warnings at tourist boats in an attempt to protect their territory and the tribe’s members.

Many people believe that the recent attack on the loggers was both avoidable (on the company’s part) and justified given the circumstances.

“Right to self-defense. Let them live in their trees,” someone wrote on X. “The loggers would have deserved it if they knew there was an isolated tribe. You are supposed to stay away from them for that reason.”

“While I do not condone murder and offer my condolences to the families of the dead, I know how the tribe feels when you just want to live your life without people interfering and making your life harder… like the government,” said another.