Footage shot in the Amazon rainforest shows an uncontacted
tribesman, the man is bare-chested and carrying a spear. He is believed to
belong to the Awá people. The Awá tribe have been described as the world's most
threatened tribe by the NGO Survival International, which has tracked killings
by loggers, who surround and encroach upon the group's territory. Their
existence has been called into question by commercial interests that want to
move into the land, but the new footage has been cited as proof that they
remain in the territory
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Amazon gold miners invade indigenous village in Brazil after
its leader is killed
Brazil’s police have been urged to investigate a ‘very tense
situation’ in Amapá state
Dom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro
Sun 28 Jul 2019 06.00 BST Last modified on Sun 28 Jul 2019
23.55 BST
Dozens of gold miners have invaded a remote indigenous
reserve in the Brazilian Amazon where a local leader was stabbed to death and
have taken over a village after the community fled in fear, local politicians
and indigenous leaders said. The authorities said police were on their way to
investigate.
Illegal gold mining is at epidemic proportions in the Amazon
and the heavily polluting activities of garimpeiros – as miners are called –
devastate forests and poison rivers with mercury. About 50 garimpeiros were
reported to have invaded the 600,000-hectare Waiãpi indigenous reserve in the
state of Amapá on Saturday.
The men were spotted days after the murder of Emyra Waiãpi,
a community leader, whose body was found near the village of Mariry early on
Wednesday.
Indigenous people evacuated Mariry and fled to the bigger
village of Aramirã – where shots were fired on Saturday. Indigenous leaders and
local politicians have called for urgent police help, fearing a bloodbath.
“The garimpeiros
invaded the indigenous village and are there until today. They are heavily
armed, they have machine guns. That is why we asking for help from the federal
police,” said Kureni Waiãpi, 26, a member of the tribe who lives in the nearest
town of Pedra Branca do Amapari, two hours away and 189km from Amapá state capital
Macapá. “If nothing is done they will start to fight.”
“We have a very tense situation,” said Beth Pelaes, mayor of
Pedra Branca do Amapari, who said the tribe are very traditional and allow only
authorised visitors.
The crisis was
revealed on Saturday by Randolfe Rodrigues, a senator for Amapá state, who
received desperate audio messages pleading for police and army help from
Jawaruwa Waiãpi, a local councillor and leader. Brazilian singer Caetano Veloso
was among those who shared the tribe’s appeal for help on Saturday.
“I ask the Brazilian authorities for help, in the name of
the dignity of Brazil in the world, hear this cry,” Veloso said in a video
recorded in Mexico City, where he is on tour.
Kureni Waiãpi said Brazil’s far-right president Jair
Bolsonaro had encouraged invasions like this. “It is because he, the president,
is threatening the indigenous peoples of Brazil,” he said.
Senator Rodrigues blamed Bolsonaro’s repeated promises to
allow mining on protected indigenous reserves, where it is currently
prohibited, for the first invasion of Waiãpi land in decades. In the 1970s, the
tribe was almost wiped out by disease after their land was invaded by gold
prospectors. In 2017, the then-president Michel Temer moved to open the vast
Renca reserve the tribe’s land falls within to mining but backed off after an
international outcry.
“The Jair
Bolsonaro government is encouraging this conflict, encouraging garimpeiros to
enter. Their hands are dirty,” Senator Rodrigues said.
Recently
Bolsonaro compared indigenous people living traditional lives on their reserves
to “prehistoric men”. On Saturday he once again talked up the mineral riches in
the Raposa Serra do Sol and Yanomami reserves – currently inundated with
thousands of garimpeiros.
“I’m looking for the ‘first world’ to
explore these areas in partnership and add value. That’s the reason for my
approximation with the United States. That’s why I want a person of trust in
the embassy in the USA,” Bolsonaro said on Saturday, according to the O Globo
newspaper. His plans to appoint his
congressman son, Eduardo, as Brazil’s US ambassador have caused an outcry in
Brazil.
Kureni Waiãpi
said the body of Emyra Waiãpa was found with stab wounds early on Wednesday
morning in a river near his village of Mariry. On Friday, local man Arawyra
Waiãpa and his wife spotted a group of men they believed to be garimpeiros at
their plantation near the village. The community fled to the bigger village of
Aramirã. Shots were fired near Aramirã around 6pm local time on Saturday but
nobody was hurt. “I think the garimpeiros are shooting to scare the Waiãpi,”
Kureni Waiãpi said.
Federal and Amapá
police were heading to the area, a spokeswoman from Brazil’s indigenous agency
FUNAI said. “For now there are no records of conflict, although a death has
been confirmed, but no details of the circumstances. The place is
difficult to access,” she said.
The state government of Amapá said it was “engaging all
efforts to support federal police in the investigation” and had sent an elite
troop of police to accompany officers sent to the area.
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