The arrest of the subject was carried out early Monday morning during four raids in the Cofan Dureno commune, in the parish of Dureno, in Sucumbios.

The assassination of Mendua, leader of the Kofán ethnic group, was carried out with gunshots at point-blank range outside his home, according to a statement issued by the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) on Sunday night.

Leonidas Iza, president of the indigenous movement, assured that the event took place a few hours after Mendua had participated in the first line of the enlarged council of Conaie and that ‘leaves us with absolute suspicion and uncertainty’, he reiterated.

Days before his death, Mendua had blamed the state company Petroecuador and the government of Guillermo Lasso for the violence generated in the Dureno community, in Sucumbios.

The indigenous leader had requested the presence of the international community and human rights organizations to be aware of the government’s abuses in that territory.

Mendua also denounced that the Ecuadorian government had been inciting a confrontation among the members of the Cofan community in order to make Petroecuador enter the 30 oil wells that exist there and exploit them.

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