‘They’re in danger’: Isolated Amazon tribe Mashco Piro enters another village in Peru

The Mashco Piro tribe is one of the world’s largest uncontacted groups, who have maintained their isolation in order to safeguard their culture and health. Since the tribe lacks the immunity to common diseases, a simple common cold could prove fatal for the community.

The Associated Press reported that loggers who have previously trespassed and tried to encroach on the tribe’s lands were killed.

According to Enrique Añez, president of the Yine community, an Indigenous group, members of the Mashco Piro tribe were seen around the Yine village of Nueva Oceania. “It is very worrying; they are in danger,” Anez said.

Anez informed that heavy machinery deployed near Nueva Oceania is involved in making a way through the forest and across rivers into Mashco Piro territory. The village is located at a key access point to Mashco Piro’s territory, making it one of the rare spots where the members of the community have been spotted.

As per Teresa Mayo, a researcher at Survival International, “Exactly one year after the encounters and the deaths, nothing has changed in terms of land protection and the Yine are now reporting to have seen both the Mashco Piro and the loggers exactly in the same space almost at the same time.”

Two loggers, who had entered the Mashco Piro territory in 2024, were reportedly killed in bow-and-arrow attacks.

(with inputs from Associated Press)