Peruvian police arrest two men over 'mob lynching' of Canadian accused of murdering Amazonian healer

A judge has ordered the arrests of two men suspected of a revenge lynching against a Canadian man accused of killing an Amazonian spiritual leader.

Sebastian Woodroffe, 41, was dragged by the neck through a remote village following the death of Olivia Arevalo, a revered shaman from the Shipibo-Konibo tribe of northeastern Peru, the country’s attorney general said.

A 90-second mobile phone recording of the lynching, which was posted on Facebook, showed two men dragging Woodroffe by a noose around his neck as others looked on. His body was later found buried nearby.

Prosecutors have identified the two men and are working to determine who else took part in what Peru's interior ministry branded a killing by a "mob".

But less is known about the slaying of Arevalo, 81, from the region of Ucayali, who was shot dead near her home on Thursday.

Ricardo Jimenez, the head of a group of prosecutors in Ucayali, said no one witnessed her shooting, the murder weapon has not been found and a test for gunshot residue on Woodroffe's body is likely to take 15 to 20 days.

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, said Mr Jimenez.

But authorities are exploring several hypotheses related to Arevalo's murder, including one in which another foreigner might have killed her over an unpaid debt, he added.

“We will not rest until both murders, of the indigenous woman as well as the Canadian man, are solved,” said Mr Jimenez in a phone interview.

He said the man in the video was Woodroffe and that an autopsy showed he had died by strangulation after receiving several blows to his body.

Arevalo's slaying prompted outrage as it followed the unsolved killings of other indigenous people in the Amazon region who had faced threats for trying to protect their land.

Policing is scant over much of the Peruvian Andes and Amazon and villagers in far-flung provinces often punish accused criminals according to local customs.

Woodroffe moved to Ucayali after raising funds to help him learn more about plant medicine in Peru to become an addictions counsellor, according to the crowdfunding website Indiegogo, in which he listed his plan to spend C$6,800 (£3,796) at a healing centre.

On Saturday, officials exhumed his body from an unmarked grave where he had been hastily buried. El Comercio reported it was found in San Pablo de Tushmo, in Yarinacocha district.

Ayahuasca has long been used by tribes in spiritual rituals and has fuelled a surge in Amazonian tourism in the past decade as its reputation for helping overcome addiction and trauma and providing spiritual insights has grown abroad.

Every year, thousands of foreign tourists travel to the Peruvian Amazon to experiment with ayahuasca, a bitter, dark-coloured brew made of a mixture of native plants.

The hallucinogenic cocktail, also known as yage, has been venerated for centuries by indigenous tribes in Brazil, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia as a cure for all sorts of ailments. But it is also increasingly consumed by Western tourists looking for mind-altering experiences, sometimes with deadly consequences.

In 2015, a Canadian fatally stabbed a fellow tourist from England after the two drank ayahuasca together in a spiritual ceremony a few hours’ drive from where Woodroffe was killed.

Arevalo was a staunch defender of indigenous people’s rights in the region. She also practised a traditional form of singing medicine that the Shipibo believe removes negative energies.

She can be heard singing a traditional plant song on the website of the Temple of the Way of Light, which describes itself as a plant-shamanic healing centre in the Peruvian Amazon.

The temple, which runs retreats for tourists specifically advertising ayahuasca, bills itself online as “a pioneering healing centre” and “the safest and one of the most respected and long-established plant-spirit shamanism centres in the Amazon rainforest”.

Explorer Bruce Parry features in one of numerous testimonial videos on its YouTube channel.

Neither Woodroffe's nor Arevalo's family could be reached for comment.

Canada's foreign affairs department said it was in touch with Peruvian officials. "We are aware of this case and actively seeking further information," Global Affairs Canada said in a statement.

Additional reporting by agencies