A Canadian tourist was lynched by Peruvian villagers who blamed him for the death of a local indigenous healer.
Sebastian Woodroffe's body was discovered about a kilometer from the home of Olivia Arevalo Lomas, a local spiritual healer and indigenous civil rights activist.
After Lomas' body was found in her home with two gunshot wounds, villagers quickly blamed Woodroffe, a resident of the area, for the healer's murder. They captured him and shared a video of his lynching on social media, and then buried his body in the woods.
" Canada extends its deepest condolences following the reported assassination of Olivia Arévalo Lomas, an Indigenous elder and human rights defender of the Shipobo-Konibo people in Peru's Ucayali region," Global Affairs Canada said in a statement CBC News. "We are also aware that a Canadian was killed in a related incident. Consular services are being provided to the family of the Canadian."
According to preliminary reports, Woodroffe, 41, was a client of Lomas, who specialized in traditional healing methods. "We will not rest until both murders, of the Indigenous woman as well as the Canadian man, are solved," prosecutor Ricardo Palma Jimenez told Reuters. No arrests have been made in the case as of today.
Reactions on Twitter offered sympathy for both murder victims.
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