Brazil’s native population is legally entitled to areas designated as reservations.
Gold miners in Brazil have reportedly invaded a remote indigenous reserve in northern Brazil where one of the leaders was stabbed to death.
Police have been deployed to the remote Amazonian village after reports of armed miners taking over the area.
Brazil’s Federal Native Rights Foundation, the Funai, said that a group of ten to fifteen men took over a village, where the land is rich in gold, manganese, iron and copper, in the west of Amapá. The men expelled the residents and have been using it as a base to launch raids intending to intimidate natives.
Residents of the village in Amapá state fled in fear of invaders and there were concerns that clashes could turn violent if they tried to reclaim their land.
A leader of the indigenous Waiapi tribe was killed before his body was found in a river the next day.
Funai alleges that this is the same group that is responsible for the death of Waiãpi leader.
Federal police and an elite force arrived in the area on Sunday, and both the federal police and the federal prosecutors’ office said they will investigate the event.
Brazil’s native population is legally entitled to areas designated as reservations, but current far-right President Jair Bolsonaro is against the reserves.
In recent years, this unexploited territory has been invaded by farmers and resource prospectors aiming to take advantage of the unspoiled lands.
Often the outsiders will resort to violent intimidation in an attempt to scare off the natives.
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