A Canadian citizen who was killed in Peru has been identified as 41-year-old Sebastian Woodroffe, a close friend says he was a Comox Valley resident.
The friend, who told CHEK News they wish to remain anonymous, says Woodroffe lived in Cumberland and Courtenay and was down in the country to study South American shaman arts.
Local officials and news outlets in the Latin American country say Woodroffe’s death may have been in reprisal for the shooting death of an Indigenous rights activist and a traditional healer, 81-year-old Olivia Arevalo Lomas.
Woodroffe was said to be in Peru for the third time and was there for about a month, and to have experimented with the hallucinogenic drink ayahuasca.
Traditional healer and elder Olivia Arevalo Lomas of the Shipibo-Conibo Indigenous people of Peru. (Temple of the Way of Light/YouTube)
Lomas was said to have been found dead in her home in the Ucayali region of the Peruvian Amazon rainforest Thursday.
The friend stressed that he believes Woodroffe would not commit such an act.
A deeply disturbing video circulating online since Friday allegedly shows Woodroffe being lynched.
“Canada extends its deepest condolences following the reported assassination of? Olivia Arévalo Lomas, an Indigenous elder and human rights defender of the Shipobo-Konibo people in Peru’s Ucayali region,” Global Affairs Canada told CHEK News in a statement.
“We are also aware that a Canadian was killed in a related incident. Consular services are being provided to the family of the Canadian.”
Ayahuasca, a combination an Amazonian vine and dimethyltryptamine (DMT), can induce an intense psychedelic and visionary state of mind and is usually used by shamans or medicine men and woman.
No further details are being released by Canadian officials.
Arevalo Lomas was an elder from the Shipibo-Conibo people in the Ucayali region of Peru, shown in lighter grey. (CBC)
With files from the CBC
Julian Kolsut
