Brazil investigates reports of massacre among Amazonian tribe by gold miners | Global development | The Guardian

13.9.17

Brazil investigates reports of massacre among Amazonian tribe by gold miners | Global development | The Guardian: Pablo Beltrand, the prosecutor from the remote Amazon town of Tabatinga – near the Peruvian border and 700 miles from the Amazonas state capital, Manaus – said his team was first informed about the possible murders in the Javari Valley at the beginning of August. A fifth of Brazil’s uncontacted tribes live in this wild region.

“We received a communication from federal government,” he said. “The ongoing investigation is about the possible death of indigenous people.”

Beltrand said he could not give more information about the inquiry but said that two men arrested recently in a police and army operation into illegal gold prospecting in the area were not connected to the case.

Brazil’s National Indian Foundation, known as Funai, first sent a team of three to the small town of S�o Paulo de Oliven�a after receiving reports that men working for gold prospectors had boasted in a bar of killing a group of eight to 10 indigenous people.