[2] Pizango has been actively resisting the government of Peru's selling of petroleum concessions to foreign companies on lands legally titled to indigenous people.
In response, the government declared a state of emergency in the departments of Cusco, Loreto and Amazonas, a move that gave it the power to send in the army to forcibly remove and arrest the protesters.
"[3] The standoff ended when Pizango and his AIDESEP organization persuaded Congress to repeal two land laws aimed at opening up Amazonian tribal areas to petroleum companies, which had originally led to the protests by the indigenous tribes.
Pizango arrived together with AIDESEP's vice-president Daysi Zapata Fasabi and Q’orianka Kilcher, an actress of indigenous Peruvian descent who played the role of Pocahontas in the film The New World.
In its decision, the Chamber considered that the Public Ministry could not demonstrate the responsibility of the accused nor clearly identify any of them as part of the crowd that participated in the actions that led to the deaths of the police.