Peruvian prosecutors suspect that a Canadian man murdered a revered medicine woman in an Amazonian village last week before being lynched in retribution, a spokesman for the Peruvian attorney general’s office said on Tuesday.
Olivia Arevalo, an 81-year-old shaman of the Shipibo-Conibo people, was shot to death near her home in the region of Ucayali on Thursday last week, prompting outrage from villagers who blamed Sebastian Woodroffe, a native of Vancouver Island.
Prosecutors had initially been pursuing several potential leads into who killed Arevalo, but their main hypothesis now is that Woodroffe murdered Arevalo because he was upset that her son had not repaid him 14,000 soles (US$4,335), said Ricardo Jimenez, the head of a regional group of prosecutors.
Authorities found a document showing that Woodroffe bought a gun on April 3 from a police officer, Jimenez said, adding that the police officer is now being sought for questioning.
A witness also testified that a silver-colored pistol fell from a backpack that Woodroffe was carrying as villagers grabbed him before the lynching, Jimenez said.
“We want to see if that weapon actually existed. We haven’t found it yet, but we’re looking,” Jimenez said. “With the new evidence that has appeared, he is the main suspect.”
Neither Woodroffe’s nor Arevalo’s family could be reached for comment.
Arevalo was considered a wealth of knowledge about Amazonian plants and native traditions.
Yarrow Willard, a friend of Woodroffe’s in Canada, said Woodroffe was not violent and had never used a gun.
“He was a loving father and kind man who was not capable of the crimes he was accused of,” Willard said in an e-mail.
Willard said Woodroffe had gone to Peru “seeking healing as he was feeling troubled and slightly lost.”
The case has spotlighted surging tourism in Peru’s Amazon related to the hallucinogenic plant brew ayahuasca, which has long been used by tribes in spiritual and healing rituals, and is now popular among foreigners seeking vivid spiritual experiences or help with addiction.
Woodroffe traveled to Peru to learn about ayahuasca and plant medicine so he could become an addictions counselor, according to his post on the crowdfunding Web site Indiegogo.com.
Tests of Woodroffe’s remains are expected to determine if he fired a weapon or was intoxicated before dying.
Authorities have expedited the laboratory work and results are expected this week, instead of in more than two weeks as initially estimated, Jimenez said.
Two men sought by police for allegedly lynching Woodroffe appear to have fled, Jimenez said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese