Peru - Canadian Sebastian Woodroffe, 41 lynched after being accused of shaman's death

PastTense

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A Canadian man was beaten and lynched in the Peruvian Amazon after local people accused him of killing an 81-year-old indigenous healer, a police officer leading the murder investigation told the Guardian.

Olivia Arévalo, a female shaman with the native Shipibo-Konibo people, was shot twice and died on Thursday near her home in the village of Victoria Gracia in Peru’s central Amazon region of Ucayali. Some villagers blamed Arévalo’s murder on a Canadian citizen Sebastian Woodroffe, 41, who lived in the region and was believed to be one of her patients.

Police found the Canadian’s body buried in a shallow grave about one kilometre (0.6 miles) from Arévalo’s home on Saturday. A cameraphone recording of the lynching was released in the local press and on social media. The video shows a bloodied man crying out as he lies in a puddle in front of a wooden home with a thatched roof. Two men put a rope or rubber hose around his neck and drag him along the ground until he goes limp and falls silent. A group of people, including children, look on.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...in-peru-after-being-accused-of-killing-shaman

Youtube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wru-4UNOuRk
 
Did anyone look into this and figure out what the hell is going on? If you follow the fundraising page to the victims youtube you can see videos he uploaded of himself explaining why he was going to SA. I'm confused why he would have shot this woman? I read somewhere he shot her because she wouldn't perform an ayahuasca ceremony, which she hadnt done in 3 years. Seems like a pretty extreme reason to shoot an old woman and I'm sure there are other places to take ayahuasca around there.
 
Did anyone look into this and figure out what the hell is going on?

I am guessing that the unfortunate victim met a volatile situation that mixed poverty, social isolation, a convenient foreign target, and drugs (though some of the usage of the drug is for traditional healing purposes, I suspect a lot more local usage falls into the “bored and getting high” category. The final ingredient was probably lack of effective local law enforcement. Horrific lynchings are far more common in areas where there is no effective justice system.

At the end of the day, indigenous communities should neither be stereotyped, nor romanticized. This American teacher was accused of kidnapping- then beaten into a permanent coma by a mob of indigenous Guatemalans, many of whom were drunk or high on another local substance. https://www.washingtonpost.com/arch...e3d-8e81-eb48b09f02be/?utm_term=.0f7659f1228b

I have also read a good book by an American backpacker in very rural parts of Tibet. Though he was well received by Tibetans, he related that he felt one rural village in particular had “bad vibes” involving poverty, bored and loitering youth, alcohol, and a convenient target (himself). He then left fast.
I'm confused why he would have shot this woman? I read somewhere he shot her because she wouldn't perform an ayahuasca ceremony, which she hadnt done in 3 years. Seems like a pretty extreme reason to shoot an old woman and I'm sure there are other places to take ayahuasca around there.

Then factor in that it is probably very difficult for an unconnected foreigner like the victim to obtain a fire arm in Peru. That is doubly so the for say, a pistol as opposed to a hunting weapon. My guess is that the perpetrator was simply another member of the tribal group.
 
I am guessing that the unfortunate victim met a volatile situation that mixed poverty, social isolation, a convenient foreign target, and drugs (though some of the usage of the drug is for traditional healing purposes, I suspect a lot more local usage falls into the “bored and getting high” category. The final ingredient was probably lack of effective local law enforcement. Horrific lynchings are far more common in areas where there is no effective justice system.

At the end of the day, indigenous communities should neither be stereotyped, nor romanticized. This American teacher was accused of kidnapping- then beaten into a permanent coma by a mob of indigenous Guatemalans, many of whom were drunk or high on another local substance. https://www.washingtonpost.com/arch...e3d-8e81-eb48b09f02be/?utm_term=.0f7659f1228b

I have also read a good book by an American backpacker in very rural parts of Tibet. Though he was well received by Tibetans, he related that he felt one rural village in particular had “bad vibes” involving poverty, bored and loitering youth, alcohol, and a convenient target (himself). He then left fast.


Then factor in that it is probably very difficult for an unconnected foreigner like the victim to obtain a fire arm in Peru. That is doubly so the for say, a pistol as opposed to a hunting weapon. My guess is that the perpetrator was simply another member of the tribal group.

As for bored locals getting high on ayahuasca, while I don't know for sure I'm going to go ahead and guess that's pretty unlikely. Also it says that the victim's family saw him shoot her. I got the impression the guys who killed him were her family members and were being so brutal because they actually knew he had killed her. I could be wrong but that was my interpretation. People who knew him certainly seem to think otherwise and I'm not sure why it's stated many indigenous activist have been murdered and it's suspected the logging companies are behind many of them since Woodroffe seems like an environmental activist.
 
As for bored locals getting high on ayahuasca, while I don't know for sure I'm going to go ahead and guess that's pretty unlikely. Also it says that the victim's family saw him shoot her. I got the impression the guys who killed him were her family members and were being so brutal because they actually knew he had killed her. I could be wrong but that was my interpretation. People who knew him certainly seem to think otherwise and I'm not sure why it's stated many indigenous activist have been murdered and it's suspected the logging companies are behind many of them since Woodroffe seems like an environmental activist.
Why do you feel that Ayahuasca would not be taken recreationaly by locals? Though it purportedly has a religious component, it is also readily available to outside tourists. This article describes a tourist stabbing another tourist to death while on it. https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/kill-...-deadly-ceremony-gone-wrong-in-peru-1.2735326

Indigenous groups have the same substance abuse problems as isolated communities of non-indigenous. Most groups simply don’t share truly sacred activities with casual tourists (despite what the tourism promoters claim). My guess is that not all natives are taking Ayahuasca for religious purposes either. This is probably doubly so for the younger generation.

Though the victim could have brought a weapon from Canada, the weapon seems to have disappeared -despite the fact that the lynchers claimed they saw him use it to kill the shaman . Likewise, it seems very unlikely that he suddenly murdered someone he was said to highly respect.

In the end, I am still thinking Occam’s razor- The Canadian victim was a convenient target in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was then attacked by criminals who happened to be members of an indigenous group.
 
I've read a report that Woodroffe was owed a sizeable amount of money by the Shaman's son that he had been trying to collect for some time. It was also said that he bought the gun from a police officer, but that was still being investigated.
 
The gun that killed a plant healer in Peru matches one purchased by a Canadian man who was slain in the Amazon rainforest earlier this month, local authorities said this week.

Peru’s justice ministry said on Thursday that Sebastian Woodroffe, 41, purchased the gun on April 3 – a few weeks before Olivia Arevalo Lomas, an octogenarian from the Shipibo-Konibo tribe of northeastern Peru, was killed.

Peruvian authorities have said the Vancouver Island man was dragged by the neck to his death shortly after he was accused of killing Ms. Arevalo Lomas.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/can...dian-man-bought-gun-that-matches-weapon-used/
 
Why do you feel that Ayahuasca would not be taken recreationaly by locals? Though it purportedly has a religious component, it is also readily available to outside tourists. This article describes a tourist stabbing another tourist to death while on it. https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/kill-...-deadly-ceremony-gone-wrong-in-peru-1.2735326

Indigenous groups have the same substance abuse problems as isolated communities of non-indigenous. Most groups simply don’t share truly sacred activities with casual tourists (despite what the tourism promoters claim). My guess is that not all natives are taking Ayahuasca for religious purposes either. This is probably doubly so for the younger generation.

Though the victim could have brought a weapon from Canada, the weapon seems to have disappeared -despite the fact that the lynchers claimed they saw him use it to kill the shaman . Likewise, it seems very unlikely that he suddenly murdered someone he was said to highly respect.

In the end, I am still thinking Occam’s razor- The Canadian victim was a convenient target in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was then attacked by criminals who happened to be members of an indigenous group.

In my view, Occam's razor in this case points to the Westerner having killed the elderly woman, and the group of villagers enacting swift justice.

I don't understand why you claim the young men of the village must be drug users, when it's certain that it was Woodroffe who was the drug user, just like all the all the other gringo tourists: habitual recreational drug users with the leisure and money to go chasing after a mythic high.

The villagers weren't as isolated as he was, what was he doing spending years alone in the jungle (he'd been there since 2015) instead of going back to Canada to be with his young son? His friends claim he was a 'gentle' guy, but there are a lot of warning signs in this article about him. "He is a little bit of a, I'll call it a **** disturber. One of these people who likes to poke, and likes to test the boundaries of people's beliefs,"...Willard said he'd come back from experiences in South America "not broken, but troubled."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/peru-lynching-bc-man-1.4630622

Something very likely went wrong, with his finances, and/or in his head, and I think the 81 year old healer was likely the victim of whatever demons possessed him.
 
I don't understand why you claim the young men of the village must be drug users,him.

I never said the young men (collective whole) of the village must be drug users.

I did say that indigenous communities have the same substance abuse problems as isolated communities of non-indigenous. I also said that indigenous peoples should neither be stereotyped nor romanticized.

I don't think all the young men are drug users (stereotype), nor do I think that none of the indigenous young men of the village are criminally inclined (romanticized).

As for your view of Occam’s razor, I think it is increasingly likely. The weapon as been found. The Canadian was not an impulsive tourist, but a semi resident who could well have developed enough local connections to purchase a pistol from a police officer.
just like all the all the other gringo tourists: habitual recreational drug users with the leisure and money to go chasing after a mythic high.

As for foreign drug tourists existing in stupors, these foreign tourists obtain their steady supply of drugs from locals (in this case, indigenous). Thus, my bet is that there are both tourists and locals in drug stupors around that village. Indigenous people in drug stupors are just as likely to commit violent crimes for foggy reasons as non indigenous.
 
Gunpowder was found on Woodroffe's clothes, the shell casings found near the dead woman's body were linked to his gun.

All evidence shows B.C. man lynched in Peru had shot dead Indigenous healer: prosecutor
Sebastian Woodroffe was allegedly lynched in retaliation for healer's death

Woodroffe had been Arevalo's patient, and her family believes he killed her because she refused to conduct a ritual in which the hallucinogenic Amazonian plant brew ayahuasca is used for healing and spiritual growth.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/sebastian-woodroffe-1.4648195
 
Of interest to me, it is reported the rumor re: SW & JA the woman's son has never been substantiated, FWIW.

Snipped from above...
...He left Peru on Jan. 12. But something had soured his relationship with the Arevalo family. A number of rumours later circulated — that Woodroffe had given Julian Arevalo money for ayahuasca ceremonies that he never received, or that he had been ripped off after giving Julian thousands of Peruvian soles (the country's currency) to buy land to start a new retreat. The rumours have never been confirmed, and by all accounts Woodroffe was never that flush with cash.

Whatever it was, something had put Woodroffe on a collision course with the Arevalos.
 
CBC has published an investigative report into these deaths, there is both a text version Descent into darkness: How a B.C. man wound up dead in Peru,
And a video documentary
Murder in the Jungle - Episodes - The Fifth Estate
I find most interesting the information on the prescription medications found in his room.

I'm definitely no expert, but a little research indicates, to me, the combination of the anti-psychotic with the anti-anxiety medication would be prescribed for schizophrenia, as is indicated here: Schizophrenia. A bipolar patient would normally be on a mood stabilizer class of drugs, which was not found in his room, and would rarely be given the anti-anxiety drug. In any case, the drugs would have been prescribed through an ongoing relationship with a psychiatrist, which was apparently concealed from family and friends. Both conditions are very seriously debilitating mental health conditions, and a challenge to manage in the best of circumstances. Schizophrenia is associated with paranoia.
 

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