National Indigenous Agency’s officer murdered in the Amazon

An indigenist (expert on indigenous issues) connected with FUNAI was killed in front of his family in the city of Tabatinga, Amazonas state, on the border with Colombia. Maxciel Pereira dos Santos was executed with a shot to the back of his head in a busy street, according to information from INA (the association of public servants for FUNAI). Maxciel worked in the Javari Valley, a region that concentrates dozens of uncontacted indigenous groups and a highly sensitive ecological area suffering increasing invasions by illegal loggers, miners and hunters. INA requested protection for Funai workers, but many indigenists left the region due to death threats. “The invaders already sent their message: they will not stop. FUNAI people already left. Who wants to be killed for nothing?”, declared Adelson Korá, coordinator for the Kanamary Indigenous Association of the Javari Valley.