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Illegal loggers kill Amazon indigenous warrior who guarded forest, wound another

 

FILE PHOTO: Paulo Paulino Guajajara was hunting on Friday Nov 1 inside the Arariboia reservation in Maranhao state when he was attacked and killed by illegal loggers. He was an indigenous Indian "forest guardian," seen here drawing water from a well at a loggers camp on Arariboia indigenous land near the city of Amarante, Maranhao state, Brazil, September 11, 2019. REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino/File Photo

 

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Illegal loggers in the Amazon ambushed an indigenous group that was formed to protect the forest and shot dead a young warrior and wounded another, leaders of the Guajajara tribe in northern Brazil said on Saturday.

 

Paulo Paulino Guajajara, or Lobo (which means 'wolf' in Portuguese), was hunting on Friday inside the Arariboia reservation in Maranhao state when he was attacked and shot in the head. Another Guajajara, Laercio, was wounded but escaped, they said.

 

The clash comes amid an increase in invasions of reservations by illegal loggers and miners since right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro took office this year and vowed to open up protected indigenous lands to economic development.

 

"The Bolsonaro government has indigenous blood on its hands," Brazil's pan-indigenous organization APIB, which represents many of the country's 900,000 native people, said in a statement on Saturday.

 

"The increase in violence in indigenous territories is a direct result of his hateful speeches and steps taken against our people," APIB said.

 

APIB leader Sonia Guajajara said the government was dismantling environmental and indigenous agencies, and leaving tribes to defend themselves from invasion of their lands.

 

"It's time to say enough of this institutionalized genocide," she said in a post on Twitter.

 

Brazil's federal police said they had sent a team to investigate the circumstances of Paulino Guajajara's death. APIB said his body was still lying in the forest where he was killed.

 

The Guajajaras, one of Brazil's largest indigenous groups with some 20,000 people, set up the Guardians of the Forest https://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-environment-forest-guardians-w/fighting-fire-with-fire-amazon-forest-guardians-stalk-illegal-loggers-idUSKBN1W51CR in 2012 to patrol a vast reservation. The area is so large that a small and endangered tribe, the Awá Guajá, lives deep in the forest without any contact with the outside world.

 

Paulino Guajajara, who was in his twenties and leaves behind one son, told Reuters in an interview http://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-environment-forest-guardians-w/fighting-fire-with-fire-amazon-forest-guardians-stalk-illegal-loggers-idUSKBN1W51CR on the reservation in September that protecting the forest from intruders had become a dangerous task, but his people could not give in to fear.

 

"I'm scared at times, but we have to lift up our heads and act. We are here fighting," he said, as he and other warriors prepared to move through the forest towards a logging camp.

 

"We are protecting our land and the life on it, the animals, the birds, even the Awá who are here too," Paulino Guajajara said at the time. "There is so much destruction of Nature happening, good trees with wood as hard as steel being cut down and taken away."

 

"We have to preserve this life for our children's future," he said.

 

(Reporting by Anthony Boadle and Leo Benassatto; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-11-03

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[tifino]

it is getting worse for the natives, than when the Spaniards first arrived...

[Puchaiyank]

The government could put a stop to this...not going to happen...too many brown envelopes on the line...????

[bendejo]

Nothing new here.  Amazonas and the northeast are like the Wild West, corruption resulting in relative lawlessness.  LOS is Dingdong School compared to what goes on there.

One time these land-grabbing brigands killed an activist nun, Lula (who was president at the time) was livid and vowed to take action, but...

 

 

[Mick501]

Sad, but wonder how many people were murdered in Rio on the same day?  Brazil is the only country I've travelled to where I felt somewhat unsafe due to a perception that random violence might occur.  

[Tropposurfer]

cut down the trees, burn everything ... what a species we are. The psychological/soul grief we are bringing to our grand and great grandchildren and generations beyond themis beyond words and measure. I retreat, to the beach and sit all but silent in my withdrawal waiting to die. 

[Penicillin]

4 hours ago, Mick501 said:

Sad, but wonder how many people were murdered in Rio on the same day?  Brazil is the only country I've travelled to where I felt somewhat unsafe due to a perception that random violence might occur.  

I think most anyone that has been there would agree with you.  You will get mugged sooner or later and that’s just the way it is. 
Add Peru to that list as well. 

[Sujo]

1 hour ago, Tropposurfer said:

cut down the trees, burn everything ... what a species we are. The psychological/soul grief we are bringing to our grand and great grandchildren and generations beyond themis beyond words and measure. I retreat, to the beach and sit all but silent in my withdrawal waiting to die. 

The hunger for money over everything else is deplorable. Social Responsibility is out the window.

 

I have a beer and just shake my head and thank buddha i never brought a child into this world.

[RideJocky]

1 hour ago, Sujo said:

The hunger for money over everything else is deplorable. Social Responsibility is out the window.

 

I have a beer and just shake my head and thank buddha i never brought a child into this world.

It’s generally people with plenty of money that go on about how evil wanting it is. 
 

We agree on the second paragraph.