A massacre of Amazon tribespeople? The search for evidence goes on

A massacre of Amazon tribespeople? The search for evidence goes on

Dom Phillips in São Paulo de Olivença

@domphillips
Wed 22 Aug 2018 02.00 EDT

When not selling breakfasts in this sleepy town on the western reaches of the Amazon, Algenor Costa fishes and hunts along the Jandiatuba River, as he has done for decades. Heading days upriver, he has often headed into the Javari Valley, a vast indigenous reserve where such activities are forbidden.

“That’s the town larder,” he says. “Everybody enters there to fish and hunt.”

Until last year, Costa, 53, sold his catch and prey to the crews of illegal gold dredgers – known as garimpeiros – who used this town as a support base before heading deep into the reserve, sucking up gold from the Jandiatuba River and pumping poisonous mercury into its muddy waters.

Last year, however, Costa was at the centre of an inquiry into the alleged massacre of up to 10 tribespeople from an uncontacted group in the reserve. The case made headlines around the world, and forced the Brazilian government – who had already been alerted about the garimpeiros’ mining activities – into action.

More:
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/aug/22/alleged-massacre-of-amazon-tribespeople-javari-valley-brazil