Peru's National Police captured Hugo Soria Flores on Tuesday in the Ucayali region, a businessman convicted for crimes committed in 2014 against indigenous leaders Edwin Chota, Jorge Ríos, Francisco Pinedo and Leoncio Quintisima, in the case that judicial authorities have identified as the emblematic Saweto case.
In August 2025, the Superior Court of Justice of Ucayali handed down a conviction against Soria Flores for qualified homicide in the form of indirect perpetration. The businessman, who was a fugitive, must serve a sentence of 28 years and three months of imprisonment. The ruling stated that on 1 September 2014 the four environmental defenders were shot dead on the orders of Soria Flores and José Carlos Estrada Huayta, a protected witness corroborated this information in the judicial proceedings.
Soria Flores, 52, was detained in the district of Manantay following an operation involving one captain and eight non-commissioned officers, according to National Police sources. The businessman was on the list of most-wanted persons under a rewards system. After his capture, he was turned over to the judicial authorities.
Estrada Huayta was captured in May. Peru's justice system has identified both businessmen as responsible for ordering the murder of the four indigenous leaders. However, authorities are still searching for Eurico Mapes Gomes and brothers Segundo and Josimar Atachi Félix, who have been identified as the material perpetrators of the crimes. The Atachi Félix brothers were sentenced to 28 years and three months of effective imprisonment but remain fugitives, while Mapes Gomes has never been captured nor appeared before Peruvian justice.
The Saweto case is recognised in Peru as emblematic as it is the first to conclude with a judicial sentence for crimes committed against environmental defenders.
