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Agence France-Presse

Activists expressed outrage Sunday at the killing of an indigenous “guardian of the forest” in Brazil’s Amazon and called on the government to thwart illegal loggers in the region.
Paulo Paulino Guajajara and another tribesman, Laercio Guajajara, were ambushed by loggers late Friday as they patrolled the Arariboia territory in the northeastern state of Maranhao.
Both men are members of the Guardians of the Forest, a group of more than 100 tribesmen who attempt to protect their land from criminal logging gangs.
Paulo Paulino was shot in the neck and died in the jungle, according to Survival International, a group that defends indigenous rights. Laercio was shot in the back but managed to escape.

The two men had left their village to look for water when the attack occurred, the Maranhao government’s human rights secretariat said on Twitter.
“Violence and death threats against the guardians have been happening for years,” Sarah Shenker, a researcher with Survival International who knew Paulo Paulino, told AFP.
“There is a lot of impunity. The authorities are unwilling to protect the indigenous lands,” Shenker charged.
“Their racist words and genocidal, anti-indigenous proposals give a kind of green light.”
Greenpeace said the two men were “the most recent victims of a state that refuses to comply with what the constitution determines.”
Amazon in flames: 110 football fields of land cleared every hour
“It is time to stop this institutionalised genocide. Stop authorising the bloodshed of our people!” Sonia Guajajara, coordinator of the Association of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil, said on Twitter.
Since taking office in January, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has been accused of harming the Amazon and indigenous tribes in order to benefit his supporters in the logging, mining and farming industries.
Amazon deforestation nearly doubled in the first eight months of the year, compared with the same period a year before. Raging fires in the region made international headlines.
In September, Human Rights Watch said the threats and attacks on forest defenders were “only getting worse” under Bolsonaro.

The group said the right-wing president’s “assault on the country’s environmental agencies is putting the rainforest and the people who live there at much greater risk.”
Bolsonaro has vehemently defended his policies.
After the attacks on the forest guardians in Maranhao, Justice Minister Sergio Moro tweeted that police would investigate the murder, which took place some 500 kilometres (310 miles) from the state capital San Luis.
“We will do everything to bring those responsible for this serious crime before the courts,” said Moro, a former federal judge.
Shenker, who was in the region in April, said they would hold Moro to his promise.
“The Brazilian government has to accept that it is their responsibility to protect those lands. That they do not, their absence there, is what pushes the guardians to assume this defence – a very hard and dangerous job,” she told AFP.
In a video interview released by Survival International last year, Laercio said: “They want to kill us all.”
The Arariboia territory is home to about 5,000 indigenous people – the Guajajara and the Awa.
Three other forest guardians have died in previous attacks there, Survival International said.
Brazil’s National Indian Foundation, Funai, issued a statement lamenting the death of Paulo Paulino, and said it would send a special team of technical experts to the area.


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Environment

Outrage in Brazil over killing of Amazon ‘forest guardian’ by illegal loggers

Paulo Paulino Guajajara was hunting on Friday inside the Arariboia reservation in Maranhao state when he was attacked and killed by illegal loggers. Photo: Reuters

Indigenous leader Laercio Guajajara, a "forest guardian", holds a gun as he prepares to search for illegal loggers on Arariboia indigenous land near the city of Amarante, Maranhao state, Brazil, September 10, 2019. Picture taken September 10, 2019. Indigenous leader Laercio Guajajara is gravely wounded and Paulo Paulino Guajajara was assassinated on Friday (October 1) in a clash with loggers. REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino

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

Amazon in flames: 110 football fields of land cleared every hour

A burning tree in Itapua do Oeste, Rondonia State, Brazil. Photo: Reuters

FILE PHOTO: An aerial view shows a fire in an area of the Amazon rainforest near Porto Velho, Rondonia State, Brazil, September 10, 2019. REUTERS/Bruno Kelly/File Photo

Eliane Muller, 40, walks next to a burnt tract of the Amazon forest as it is cleared by farmers, after the fire hit 2 acres from her cassava plantation in Rio Pardo, Rondonia, Brazil September 16, 2019. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

epa07821208 A man wearing a costume of Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro participates in the celebration of the Amazon Day in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 05 September 2019. The commemoration of the Amazon Day coincides with an environmental crisis of international dimensions unleashed in Brazil after the advance of fire in this region that treasures almost 20 percent of the planet's fresh water reserves and is the refuge of some 30,000 species of plants and animals. EPA-EFE/MARCELO SAYAO

Between September 18 and 19, the number of forest fires in Brazil’s Rondonia state jumped to 242 from 12 just the day before, an increase of 1,915 per cent. Photo: Reuters

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro rejects ‘fallacy’ of Amazon being part of human heritage

President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil speaks at the United Nations on Tuesday. Photo: AFP

Smoke billows during a fire in an area of the Amazon rainforest near Porto Velho, Rondonia State, Brazil, September 17, 2019. REUTERS/Bruno Kelly

FILE - In this Sept. 2, 2019 file photo, logs lay at a lumber mill surrounded by recently charred and deforested fields near Porto Velho, Rondonia state, Brazil. While the vast Amazon rainforest acts as a bulwark against climate change because its lush vegetation absorbs heat-trapping carbon dioxide, experts say current fires are manmade, often set illegally by land grabbers who are clearing the forest for cattle ranching and crops. (AP Photo/Andre Penner, File)

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Paulo Paulino Guajajara and another tribesman, Laercio Guajajara, were ambushed by loggers late Friday as they patrolled the Arariboia territory



Paulo Paulino Guajajara and another tribesman, Laercio Guajajara, were ambushed by loggers late Friday as they patrolled the Arariboia territory in the northeastern state of Maranhao.


Outrage in Brazil over killing of Amazon ‘forest guardian’ by illegal loggers

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} Paulo Paulino Guajajara and another tribesman, Laercio Guajajara, were ambushed by loggers late Friday as they patrolled the Arariboia territory

Paulo Paulino Guajajara and another tribesman, Laercio Guajajara, were ambushed by loggers late Friday as they patrolled the Arariboia territory