July 19, 2022
14:07
Bruno Pacheco – Amazon Agency
MANAUS – The Union of Indigenous Peoples of the Javari Valley (Univaja) reported on the morning of Tuesday, 19, that two armed miners threatened servants of the Ethno-Environmental Protection Base (Bape) of the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI), located on the Jandiatuba River, in the countryside of the Amazon. The episode occurred on the 15th of this month, around 5 pm, and involved workers of the Matis people who work at the base, according to a statement released by the organization.
“The armed men asked how many employees (including Matis indigenous people) were working at that base, with the clear intention of harassing the workers. One of the main attributions of the Funai staff at the Jandiatuba base is the protection of the indigenous land in order to assure the physical and territorial integrity of the isolated indigenous groups who live on the Jandiatuba and Jutaí rivers. In this region of the Javari Valley, there is the largest amount of information and confirmed references of isolated indigenous groups”, reported Univaja, in a statement.
The Jandiatuba River is an affluent of the right bank of the Solimões and Amazonas Rivers and is located in the extreme northwest of the state, in a region considered to be a ‘route for drug trafficking’, mining and illegal fishing. The waters of the affluent cut through three Indigenous Lands (TI), among them, Vale do Javari and Nova Esperança do Jandiatuba, widely used by isolated populations, according to FUNAI monitoring.
According to Univaja, between February 24 and March 18 of this year, a Funai team in the Javari Valley conducted surveillance and monitoring activities on the Jandiatuba River and recorded the presence of 19 active mining rafts in the region, with logistical movement leaving the municipality of São Paulo de Olivença (982.64 kilometers from Manaus) and points of timber removal for construction of rafts near where isolated indigenous people live. The suspicion is that the “visit” of the two armed men to the protection base is linked to the operation.
See also: Risks in the Javari Valley were warned by Bruno Pereira in a 2017 report
“The people operating the mining rafts on the Jandiatuba River carried firearms (16- and 12-caliber). The Funai report plotted 14 GPS coordinates mapping the illegal mining activities”, Univaja reported, in another excerpt of the note.
In the same period, on March 16, 2022, by means of a letter addressed to the superintendence of the Federal Police of Amazonas (PF-AM), Univaja said that it informed the “exponential increase in illegal mining activities” on the Jandiatuba and Jutaí rivers and that this data was catalogued and passed on to the authorities by the indigenous activist Bruno Pereira, murdered on June 5 of this year, alongside British journalist Dominic Mark Phillips – Dom Phillips, after the two had made a trip to the Javari Valley.
Nothing done’ in Vale do Javari
Also in the note, Univaja pointed out that despite passing on technical information to the authorities, no action has been taken so far. The organization even built a map with GPS coordinates, collected in the field, showing illegal mining activities and the confirmed records of isolated indigenous groups in the Jandiatuba River.
“In this context of insecurity, after more than a month of the assassination of Bruno Pereira and Dominic Philips, Univaja comes to alert that no concrete providence has been taken for active and preventive action by the Brazilian State through its competent institutions regarding the safety of the people (indigenous and non-indigenous) of the Javari Valley”, warned Univaja.
Indigenous protection
The indigenous organization demands the federal government to create an emergency protection plan for the Javari Valley; the joint action of the Federal Police, the Army, and the Brazilian Environmental Institute (Ibama) for at least six months at the FUNAI’s ethno-environmental protection bases on the rivers Jandiatuba, Ituí, Curuça, and Quixito, both in the Amazon.
Univaja also requests the state government to allow the Environmental Military Police Battalion to act for the same period of time along the Itaquaí river, between Atalaia do Norte and the Vale do Javari Indigenous Land, in order to combat environmental crimes.
Check out, in full, the note from Univaja:
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