Venezuela says it investigating slaying of Indigenous leader

By JORGE RUEDA
Associated Press

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan authorities are investigating the slaying of an Indigenous leader who denounced illegal mining in a remote part of the country close to the Amazon rainforest. Virgilio Trujillo was shot to death June 30 in broad daylight in Puerto Ayacucho, a small border town that is the capital of the Venezuelan state of Amazonas. The head of the nation’s investigative police says a unit of detectives was sent to the area to collect clues and conduct interrogations. He says the Indigenous leader was possibly killed by oen of the ilegal armed groups in the area that smuggle gold, drugs and other contraband along the porous border with Colombia.