Six months after predicting his own murder, a leading rainforest defender has reportedly been gunned down in the Brazilian Amazon. José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva and his wife, Maria do Espírito Santo, are said to have been killed in an ambush near their home in Nova Ipixuna, in Pará state, about 37 miles from Marabá…
In a speech at a TEDx event in Manaus, in November
, Da Silva spoke of his fears that loggers would try to silence him. “I could be here today talking to you and in one month you will get the news that I disappeared. I will protect the forest at all costs. That is why I could get a bullet in my head at any moment … because I denounce the loggers and charcoal producers, and that is why they think I cannot exist. [People] ask me, ‘are you afraid?’ Yes, I’m a human being, of course I am afraid. But my fear does not silence me. As long as I have the strength to walk I will denounce all of those who damage the forest.”
Stephanie Pappas, LiveScience Senior Writer Date: 08 August 2011 Time: 04:15 PM ET
An uncontacted Amazon tribe that made headlines earlier this year after being filmed from the air is feared missing after presumed drug traffickers overran the Brazilian guards posted to protect the tribe's lands.
According to tribal advocacy group Survival International, Brazilian officials can find no trace of the Indians in the area after heavily armed men ransacked the guard post in western Brazil about 12 miles (20 kilometers) from the Peruvian border. Like other uncontacted tribes [ http://www.livescience.com/14772-uncontacted-tribe-brazil.html ], the Indians live a traditional life in the forest and do not have contact with the outside world.
"We think the Peruvians made the Indians flee," Carlos Travassos, the head of the government's isolated Indians department, said in a statement. "Now we have good proof. We are more worried than ever."
Lost tribe
As many as 2,000 uncontacted Indians may live in the Javari Valley of the western Amazon, Survival International estimates. Brazilian officials keep an eye on tribal lands but do not force contact with the inhabitants. In February, Brazil's Indian Affairs Department released aerial photos and film of the tribe that is now missing, revealing thatched dwellings, tribe members in red body paint, and gardens full of manioc tubers and papaya. [See the aerial photos [ http://www.livescience.com/15459-gallery-missing-uncontacted-indians.html (above)].]
Now the Indians seem to have disappeared. According to Survival International, police found a package containing 44 pounds (20 kilograms) of cocaine in the area. That could mean that the Envira River, where the Brazilian guard post is located, is now an entry point into Brazil for Peruvian cocaine smugglers, they said.
According to local reports, police have detained one man, a Portuguese national who was arrested and deported for drug trafficking in March. Jose Carlos Meirelles, who headed the remote guard post, is now back in the area and reported that several groups of men armed with sub-machine guns and rifles are in the forest near the base.
"This situation could be one of the biggest blows we have ever seen in the protection of uncontacted Indians in recent decades," Travassos said, referring to the possible drug traffickers. "It's a catastrophe."
A 10-year-old girl has given birth to a baby in Colombia, becoming one of the world’s youngest mothers.
By Amy Willis, Los Angeles 11:03AM BST 06 Apr 2012
Doctors delivered the baby by caesarean section after the girl, a member of the indigenous Wayuu tribe, arrived at a hospital in Manaure in floods of tears.
The girl, who has not been named, was 39 weeks pregnant when she appeared at the hospital in pain from contractions and bleeding. It was the first time doctors had seen the girl during her pregnancy.
After the operation, the mother and baby – a healthy daughter weighing just 5lbs – were said to be “doing well”.
Despite the girl being under age, Colombian laws allow indigenous tribes such as the Wayuu a degree of self-governance. The tribes maintain their own sovereignty and cultural traditions.
Giving birth at a young age is said to be typical of Wayuu customs.
The identity of the father has not been revealed, but local media have suggested it could be a 15-year-old boy, others have claimed it is a 30-year-old man.
The birth has led to fierce debate in the country, with some calling the practice “shocking”.
Efrain Pacheco Casadiego, director at the hospital where the baby was born, said: “We’ve already seen similar cases of Wayuu girls. At a time when [the girls] should be playing with dolls, they go to having to take care of a baby.”
Others said the tribe’s culture needs to be respected.
“Since it’s a Wayuu girl we are trying to respect all of their rights since they have autonomy and their own juriostiction,” Alejandro Samplayo, director of parental organisation Colombiano Bienestar Familiar, said.
The youngest mother in the world was a five-year-old girl called Lina Medina from Peru in 1933.
Imperiled Amazon Indians Make 1st Contact with Outsiders
Advocates are concerned by a recent uptick in sightings of uncontacted people. This image was released by Survival International in 2011. Credit: Survival International
By Megan Gannon, News Editor | July 03, 2014 12:27pm ET
Indigenous people with no prior contact to the outside world have just emerged from the Amazon rainforest in Brazil and made contact with a group of settled Indians, after being spotted migrating to evade illegal loggers, advocates say.
The news, which was released yesterday (July 2), comes after sightings of the uncontacted Indians in Brazil near the border with Peru, according to the group Survival International. Officials with the organization had warned last month that the isolated tribes face threats of disease and violence as they moved into new territory and possibly encountered other people.
"Something serious must have happened," José Carlos Meirelles, a former official with the Brazilian Indian Affairs Department FUNAI, said in a statement. "It is not normal for such a large group of uncontacted Indians to approach in this way. This is a completely new and worrying situation, and we currently do not know what has caused it." [See Photos of Uncontacted Amazon Tribe [ http://www.livescience.com/18228-gallery-images-uncontacted-tribes.html ]]
Survival International officials said dozens of uncontacted Indians were recently spotted close to the home of the Ashaninka Indians in Brazil's Acre state along the Envira River, while a government investigation in the region uncovered more ephemeral traces of the tribe on the move: footprints, temporary camps and food leftovers. On Sunday (June 29), reports suggest, the vulnerable group of Indians made contact with the Asháninka.
Advocates think the Indians crossed into Brazil from Peru to escape drug traffickers and illegal loggers who started working in their territory, Fiona Watson, research and field director for Survival International, told Live Science in an email.
Advocates warned this could be a deadly development.
As they travel, the tribe may be at risk of clashes with other groups and contagious diseases to which they have no immunity. Illnesses like the flu and malaria, for example, devastated the Zo'e tribe in northern Brazil after Christian missionaries established a base camp in the area in the 1980s.
"I am from the same area as they are," Nixiwaka Yawanawá, an Indian from Brazil's Acre state, said in a statement. "It is very worrying that my relatives are at risk of disappearing. It shows the injustice that we face today. They are even more vulnerable because they can’t communicate with the authorities. Both governments must act now to protect and to stop a disaster against my people," added Yawanawá, who joined Survival to speak out for the rights of such indigenous peoples.
Another uncontacted tribe was famously photographed near the Brazil-Peru border in 2008. Images released by Survival International at the time showed men pointing arrows at the plane photographing them. In 2011, a government post that was monitoring the area was overrun by illegal loggers and drug smugglers.
"International borders don't exist for uncontacted tribes, which is why Peru and Brazil must work together to prevent lives being lost," Survival director Stephen Corry urged in the statement. "Both governments must act now if their uncontacted citizens are to survive."
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