Miners kill indigenous leader during invasion of Amazon protected reserve – “President Bolsonaro has virtually declared war on Brazil’s indigenous peoples”
28 July 2019 (BBC News) – Heavily armed gold miners have invaded a remote indigenous reserve in northern Brazil and stabbed to death one of its leaders, officials say.
Residents of the village in Amapá state fled in fear and there were concerns violent clashes could erupt if they tried to reclaim the gold-rich land.
Police have arrived in the area.
Tensions in the Amazon region are on the rise as far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who is against the reserves, vows to open some of them to mining.
Mr Bolsonaro says the indigenous territories are too big given the number of people living there, and critics accuse him of encouraging illegal mining and invasions of reserves.
The group of 10 to 15 heavily armed miners overran the village Yvytotõ of the Wajãpi community and “tensions were high”, according to Brazil’s indigenous rights agency, Funai.
The residents fled to the Mariry village, some 40 minutes away by foot, and have been warned not to try to come into any contact with the invaders.
Based on accounts from the Wajãpi, Funai said the miners had killed 68-year-old Emyra Wajãpi, whose body was found with stab marks in a river near Mariry on Wednesday. It said, though, it had not been to the crime scene because of the difficulty of access. […]
The incident appears to confirm the worst fears for the fate of Brazil’s protected indigenous territories, the BBC’s Julia Carneiro in Rio reports. […]
“This is the first violent invasion in 30 years since the demarcation of the indigenous reserves in Amapá,” Senator Rodolfe Rodrigues told local newspaper Diário do Amapá (in Portuguese), warning of a “blood bath”. […]
Speaking earlier on Saturday, Mr Bolsonaro said some of the indigenous territories were on “very rich [mineral] land” and that he was “looking for the ‘first world’ to explore these areas in partnership and add value,” according to O Globo newspaper (in Portuguese). [more]
Brazil’s indigenous people: Miners kill one in invasion of protected reserve
Indigenous leader murdered in northern Amazon
29 July 2019 (Survival International) – A leader of the Wajãpi tribe has been murdered in Brazil.
Emyra Wajãpi’s body was found by members of the tribe on 23 July 2019. APINA, the association of Wajãpi villages, has released a statement saying that although no Wajãpi witnessed the killing, they believe Emyra was killed by outsiders the previous day.
On 26 July 2019 the Wajãpi of Yvytotõ community – in the region where the murder occurred – reported that heavily armed goldminers had invaded their village. The miners threatened them and forcibly occupied a Wajãpi house.
The entire community fled to a neighbouring village which sent out an SOS on the radio for help from the federal police. A police team arrived in the Wajãpi territory on 28 July 2019.
COIAB, the Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon, released a statement expressing its outrage about the invasions of indigenous territories, which it says are “encouraged by the irresponsible, authoritarian and prejudiced stance of the current government – especially President Bolsonaro – and its attack on the rights of this country’s first peoples.”
The Guarani people of central-western Brazil said, “We invite everybody to fight alongside indigenous peoples against the genocidal attack which is currently underway, and which has been reactivated by the current government.”
Stephen Corry, Director of Survival International, said: “President Bolsonaro’s recent comments on opening up indigenous territories to mining are emboldening illegal goldminers and other invaders. He has virtually declared war on Brazil’s indigenous peoples. They, and their allies around the world, will not stop fighting back.”
Survival International is condemning the illegal invasion of the Wajãpi territory by goldminers and calling on the government to evict them and bring them to justice.
The Wajãpi Indians were contacted by outsiders in 1973 when the military dictatorship bulldozed a highway through part of their land. The highway paved the way for multiple invasions by goldminers who caused immense destruction of the forest and spread diseases which killed many Wajãpi.
They campaigned for years for their land rights, mapping out their territory themselves. It was finally officially recognized as indigenous land in 1996.
Today they number about 1,500 people and depend entirely on the forest and rivers for their livelihood, and like all tribal peoples they have a deep spiritual connection to their land. A Wajãpi man told Survival: “Our life depends on the life of the earth and of the forest.”
