Indigenous Tribes of the Amazon Prepare Resistance To

Section:GDN 1N PaGe:33 Edition Date:190727 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 26/7/2019 15:51 cYanmaGentaYellowb Saturday 27 July 2019 The Guardian • World 33 Brazil ‘If the government ‘Bolsonaro wants to opens this up, in two destroy the lot of us’ years it’ll all be gone’ Ewerton Marubo Tribal elder, Javari Valley Indigenous tribes of A Korubo boy, ▼ Forest burns Xikxuvo Vakwë, near a reserve with a sloth that near Jundía, in he has hunted in Roraima state, the Amazon prepare the Javari. There as President Jair are thought to be Bolsonaro opens 16 ‘lost tribes’ in up indigenous the reserve land to outsiders resistance to invaders PHOTOGRAPH: GARY PHOTOGRAPH: DADO CALTON/OBSERVER GALDIERI/BLOOMBERG ▲ ‘We must fi nd a way of protecting ourselves,’ says Lucia Kanamari, one of the Javari Valley’s few female indigenous leaders PHOTOGRAPH: TOM PHILLIPS/THE GUARDIAN 1998 to protect the tribes – has long Tom Phillips suff ered incursions from intruders Atalaia do Norte seeking to cash in on its natural resources. But as Bolsonaro ratchets s a blood-orange sun up his anti-indigen ous rhetoric and set over the forest dismantles Funai – the chronically canopy, Raimundo underfunded agency charged with Atalaia do Norte, the riverside Kanamari pondered protecting Brazil’s 300-odd tribes – portal to the Javari Valley reserve A his tribe’s future Javari leaders fear it will get worse. PHOTOGRAPH: ANA PALACIOS under Brazil’s far- “The current government’s dream right president. “Bolsonaro’s no is to exterminate the indigenous their own anti-venom for perilous good,” he said. “He wants to destroy people so they can take our land,” weeks-long missions into the jungle. the lot of us, bomb our villages.” claimed Kevin Mayoruna, 39, a Larraín said: “It’s an area the size A n aerial assault on the Amazon leader from Javari’s Matsés tribe . of a country, almost completely seems far-fetched. But campaigners Marcos Mayoruna, also a Matsés unprotected . I feel overwhelmed.” believe Jair Bolsonaro’s government leader, said that by allowing invaders Bolsonaro has warned the is the biggest threat to indigenous into Javari , and depriving tribes of international community against communities since military rulers healthcare and education, Bolsonaro meddling in the Amazon, and paints bulldozed highways through the was trying to force them from lands himself as a champion of indigenous region nearly fi ve decades ago, that c ould then be exploited. “All he people who no longer want to live leaving behind a trail of death. thinks about is money. All he thinks “like prehistoric men with no access “Not since the dictatorship have about is deforestation,” he said, to technology, science, information we lived through such a tough warning of the implications for the and the wonders of modernity”. moment,” said Jaime Siqueira, of the climate . “The forest isn’t just for us . But Javari activists and elders are Indigenous Work Centre (CTI), an It’s for everyone.” determined to resist him. “He sees NGO helping to defend indigen ous The Javari Valley is far from the us as animals. As if we didn’t know people. “It’s not just deforestation only indigenous territory threatened how to think,” said Marubo, who that has gone up in the Amazon . under Bolsonaro, who compared the hopes foreign funding might help Violence against indigenous groups inhabitants to animals in zoos and tribes adopt surveillance techniques has too .” vowed not to demarcate “one square voluntary isolation. For such groups, to safeguard their land. “If the Ewerton Marubo, a leader in the centimetre” of land for such groups. Colombia who lack immunity to simple government opens this area up, in Javari Valley reserve – an area nearly Thousands of wildcat miners – illnesses such as infl uenza, contact two years it will all be gone . The the size of Portugal sheltering many emboldened by Bolsonaro’s view Ecuador with outsiders can be fatal. wood will be gone. The fi sh will be of Brazil’s uncontacted tribes – said that reserves are too big – have Cristina Larraín, an activist for the gone. The rivers will all be polluted .” its 6,000 people faced a new era of reportedly been pouring on to Peru Indigenous Missionary Council Lucia Kanamari , one of Javari’s ruin. “ [Bolsonaro] is proving himself Yanomami lands near Brazil’s (Cimi), said Javari was under assault few female leaders, said: “If the to be the number one enemy of the border with Venezuela in search of Javari Valley from loggers, ranchers, hunters, government doesn’t support us, indigenous,” he said. gold. South, in Rondônia state, the indigenous Brazil fi shermen, wildcat gold miners and we must fi nd a way of protecting On a steamy evening, Marubo Uru-eu-wau-wau tribe are battling territory oil fi rms from across the Peru border . ourselves. He’s not a president was one of two dozen local leaders to keep armed land-grabbers Funai has 18 staff to stop intruders who has come to fi x things. He’s a in Atalaia do Norte – the riverside off their 1.9m-hectare (7,000 sq Pacific entering the 8.5m-hectare enclave president who has come to destroy.” portal to Javari – to discuss how to miles) reserve. But the stakes are Ocean Lima and four other reserves to the south. defend the reserve. particularly high in Javari , a sweep The agency, whose new Bolsonaroan The Guardian visited the Amazon Like other indigenous territories of rainforests and rivers thought 400 km boss horrifi es specialists, is so with support from the aid agencies in the Amazon, Javari – created in to house 16 “lost tribes” living in 400 miles starved of cash that staff must buy Red Eclesial Pan Amazónica and C idse .

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