Peruvian authorities are investigating after the body of a British environmental activist was discovered in the Amazon city of Iquitos, reportedly burned.
The body of Paul McAuley, 71, was found by students on Tuesday in a hostel he founded for indigenous students in Belen area of the city, in the Loreto region.
A statement by the religious order he belonged to said his body had been burned.
Six people who lived in the youth hostel with McAuley, who was also a Catholic missionary, are being questioned.
Environmental Investigation Agency, a UK-based NGO, paid tribute to McAuley who “fought peacefully for indigenous rights and forests in Peru.”
“Rest in peace, Brother Paul, we will continue the fight,” the organisation said.
McAuley moved to Peru in 1995 and subsequently to the Amazon in 2000, and was a known environmental activist in the area, as well as being involved in several development projects.
Shortly after setting up a school in a poor community of the capital, Lima, McAuley was honoured with an MBE, which he gave back to the Queen in protest.
He gained international fame in 2010 and was branded an “indigenous gringo priest” when Peru ordered his expulsion after he helped indigenous tribes fight against the encroachment of oil and gas companies on the rainforest.
McAuley eventually fought a court battle, during which he was supported by hundreds of protesters.
Paying tribute, Peru’s Episcopal conference wrote in a statement in Spanish: “Paul McAuley, president of the Loretana Environmental Network and advisor to the Peruvian Amazon Student Organization, was a well-known defender of the environment, identified with the reality of Loreto and the problems of indigenous peoples.”