'They attacked with machetes': murder, mafias and illegal mining in Peru's gold fields

Rising gold prices have led to increasingly violent land grabs, with rightful owners left to defend themselves and the rainforest from attackJuan Julio Fernández Hanco was shot in the head on his brother's doorstep in March. His family says they know the killers by sight and still see them around La Pampa, a gold-rush town and hub for organised crime in the Madre De Dios region, on the highway through the Peruvian Amazon.Hanco, 52, and his family are well known locally. The home where he died belonged to his brother, Germán Fernández Hanco, who helped manage the nearby Tambopata national reserve, trying to protect Peru's eco-tourism haven in the rainforest from miners who would hack down its trees and leave it scarred with toxic pools. Continue reading...