Alessandra Korap Munduruku has won the 2023 Goldman Environmental Prize, the “green Nobel,” for her work defending the environment in the Tapajós river basin in the state of Pará. Korap, who leads the Pariri Indigenous Association that supports local communities, has worked to prevent large mining companies, such as Anglo American and Vale, from exploiting undemarcated indigenous lands. She has faced several attacks and death threats, but endures as a significant figure in the fight against the destruction of forests and rivers.

The Goldman Environmental Prize has been awarded to only three other Brazilians since 1989: Carlos Alberto Ricardo (1992), Marina Silva (1996), and Tarcísio Feitosa da Silva (2006).

Almost 40% of people killed in rural conflicts in 2022 were indigenous, according to the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT) in a report released on Monday (17). The year was marked by a significant increase in violence against individuals resulting from conflicts in rural areas. In all, 553 incidents were recorded, resulting in the deaths of 1,065 people, 50% more than in 2021 (368 incidents with 819 victims). Traditional peoples are the main victims in this scenario, which includes murders, assassination attempts, threats, assaults, torture and imprisonment.

In 2022, 38% of the 47 people killed in rural areas were indigenous people, totaling 18 cases. Next came landless workers (9), environmentalists (3), settlers (3), and wage workers (3). In addition, the deaths of indigenous rights activist Bruno Pereira and journalist Dom Phillips in Vale do Javari, Amazonas state, were added to the critical scenario of victims of rural conflicts in 2022. The number of murders resulting from rural conflicts last year represented an increase of 30.55% compared to 2021 (36 deaths) and 123% compared to the data recorded in 2020 (21 deaths).

To create memory and help elaborate on the tragedy of mineral policy under the Bolsonaro government, The Mining Observatory [Observatório da Mineração] and Smoke Signal [Sinal de Fumaça] have launched the bilingual report “Pure Dynamite: how Bolsonaro’s Government (2019-2022) Mineral Policy Set Up a Climate and Anti-Indigenous Bomb” an independent production that brings a timeline of the mineral sector and details the dismantling of regulatory bodies, rights violations, scandalous agreements and other measures adopted by the former government to satisfy the mineral market lobby in the country and the world.

In its thorough and investigative work, Observatório da Mineração closely followed the work that Bolsonaro’s government undertook at the national and international levels to dismantle public policies and sell mining and metal goods. Investigations have shown that his administration promoted legal and infralegal changes that benefited large mining companies, caused the criminal networks of illegal mining to soar, and made institutions such as the Ministry of Mines and Energy and the National Mining Agency totally subservient to vested financial interests. Smoke Signal Socio-Environmental Monitor, which has recorded facts and movements related to Brazilian socio-environmental policies over the last four years, joined Observatório da Mineração to produce this unprecedented report.

In addition to exposing the sophisticated articulations made between the mining market lobby, transnational companies and the federal government behind closed doors in the National Congress, the publication also brings a brief summary of the first measures adopted by Lula’s government and a list with 20 initial suggestions for the recovery of public governance and the reduction of negative effects of mining in the country. 

Click here to read our report in english. Also available in portuguese.

Rubén Dario da Silva Villar, known as “Colombia”, was the mastermind of the murders of Brazilian indigenist Bruno Pereira and British journalist Dom Phillips, occurred in June 2022 in Vale do Javari [Javari Valley], in Amazonas. The information was confirmed by the superintendent of the Federal Police in the state, Alexandre Fontes, on Monday (23).

According to investigations, “Colombia” had a direct relationship with Amarildo da Costa Oliveira, known as “Pelado”, who is in prison and confessed participation in the deaths of Bruno and Dom. Amarildo’s brother, Oseney, and Jefferson da Silva Lima, also were arrested on suspicion of the crime.

The Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office denounced Amarildo, Oseney and Jefferson for the murder of the victims. According to the superintendent, Colombia should be indicted for the murder in the coming days.

“The motivation is illegal fishing in the Vale do Javari region. And the intellectual author, I have no doubt, is ‘Colombia’. He was also the one who supplied boats for the illegal fishing in the region,” explained the delegate.

The confirmation by the police of the direct involvement of Colombia, which had been pointed out by the Union of Indigenous Peoples of Vale do Javari (Univaja), brings relief to the families of Bruno and Dom, but much remains to be done to defeat the criminals in Javari, says the public note from the Observatory of Human Rights of Isolated Indigenous Peoples and of Recent Contact. “Other people may be involved in the killings, it is necessary to clarify the death of Maxciel Pereira and the involvement, by omission or action, of public servants, including military personnel,” says the note.

On Friday (20), the Federal Court in Amazonas rescheduled the first hearings of the process that investigates the murders of Bruno and Dom. The lawyer for the Union of Indigenous Peoples of Vale do Javari (Univaja), Eliésio Marubo, was dismayed by the postponement of the hearings. For him, the impasse “causes insecurity in the trial and gives the idea that the criminals are poor wretches unjustly treated by the judicial system. “Someone is making mistakes on purpose, because not even a trainee can make such errors,” said the indigenous lawyer.

The minister of Justice, Flávio Dino, said in an interview on that he will determine the Federal Police to do “as much as they possibly can” to resolve and bring justice on the killings of indigenous expert Bruno Pereira and British journalist Dom Philips, in the Javary Valley in Amazonas state in June 2022. 

Beto Marubo, an indigenous leader and member of the Union of Indigenous Peoples of Javari Valley (Univaja) who worked with Dom and Bruno, has demanded, in his social media channels, that the resolution of the case gets the same effort and priority as the murder of Marielle Franco, the Rio de Janeiro city council deputy murdered in March 2018. “This case also needs to be resolved, to Brazil and to the world”, Marubo tweeted. Due to security issues, Beto Marubo has not been back to the Javari Valley since the brutal murders.  To him, the continued threats and the presence of criminal groups in the region means that “there was absolutely no justice” with regards to the deaths of his colleagues.

The final report of a external commission of the House of Representatives that is following the investigation of the murder of the Brazilian indigenous activist Bruno Pereira and the English journalist Dom Phillips, in the region of Vale do Javari (AM), was approved. The report calls for the creation of a Parliamentary Inquiry Commission (CPI) to investigate crimes committed in the region, among other measures.

The External Commission of the Chamber of Deputies holds the Brazilian State responsible for not being present in the Javari Valley, which is overrun by international drug trafficking, illegal fishers and illegal mining. The rapporteur, congresswoman Vivi Reis (PSOL-PA), highlighted the “planned omission of the government in favor of organized crime” and the lack of action by authorities in the face of “tragedy foretold”, referring to the potential for conflicts involving various interests in the region.

Vice President-elect Geraldo Alckmin (PSB), who is coordinating the government transition, has announced new names for the technical teams, including the Environment and Indigenous Peoples working groups.

In the Environment group is former Minister Marina Silva (Rede), Environment Minister during Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s (PT) government between 2003 and 2008 and was elected for Congress in São Paulo this year. Besides Marina, other former environment ministers were announced to compose the thematic group: Carlos Minc, minister in Lula’s government between 2008 and 2010; and Izabella Teixeira, minister between 2010 and 2016, between Lula’s and Dilma Rousseff’s (PT) governments.

In the group of the Indigenous Peoples, 10 participants were nominated, but, in the following day, APIB, Indigenous People of Brazil Network, demanded the inclusion of five more names, which was promptly accepted. The nominees include Joênia Wapichana, the first indigenous woman to be elected as a congresswoman, and the elected representatives Célia Xakriabá and Sônia Guajajara.

President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) lost the election to Luís Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) by 50.9% to 49.1% of the valid votes. It is the first time that a Brazilian president has failed to win reelection since the end of the military dictatorship.

The former Minister of the Environment, Marina Silva (REDE), who was one of the responsibles for the drop of more than 70% in deforestation in the Amazon during Lula’s administration, is one of the favorites to run the Ministry starting January, 1st.

During the campaign, Lula committed himself to the environmental agenda, to fighting illegal mining on indigenous lands, and to the creation of a Ministry of Indigenous Peoples. Politica por Inteiro listed 401 acts of the Federal Executive Branch between 2019 and 2022 to be repealed or revised in order to reconstitute the Brazilian climate and environmental policies.

Ruben Dario da Silva Villar,  also known as ‘Colombia’, was released from jail on Friday morning (21) after paying a R$ 15,000 bail. Ruben is under investigation for ordering the murder of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira. He was imprisoned for carrying false documents. Colombia He is also suspect of running an illegal fishing gang in the Vale do Javari Indigenous Reserve in Amazonas state.

On October 11, Judge Fabiano Verli granted Colombia provisional release, further determining “the payment of bail in the amount of R$15,000; monthly appearance before Justice; to remain under house arrest; electronic monitoring; prohibition of travel outside of Brazil; and the surrender of his passport.”

Colombia was arrested in July 2022 while trying to enter Brazil with false documents. He denied involvement in the murders of Bruno and Dom and said he only had a “commercial relationship” with fishermen in Vale do Javari. However, the Federal Police suspect that Coelho finances illegal fishing in indigenous areas in the border region as a way to launder money from drug trafficking. To preserve his business, he would have put a bounty on Bruno Pereira’s head among the region’s criminals.

Decree 11.226, signed by Jair Bolsonaro (PL), excluded FUNAI’S (Brazilian Indigenous peoples agency) the Regional Committees and their instances such as the Ethnoenvironmental Protection Fronts and Local Technical Coordinations, provided for in the 2017 Statute.

Civil society organizations and indigenous rights advocates showed concern and warned that “the new statute and changes in the staff of the National Indian Foundation should make the demarcation of indigenous lands unviable and reduce the agency’s autonomy in the construction and application of public policies.”

“Bolsonaro promised to give Funai a whack, remember? First he cut the members, and now, with this decree, he cuts off the head of the institution. It practically ends with the institution,” said Antonio Eduardo Cerqueira de Oliveira, executive secretary of the Indigenous Missionary Council (Cimi), to InfoAmazônia.

With a little over a month to the 2022 presidential elections in Brazil, the monitoring initiative Smoke Signal launches “The Amazon and the Future of Brazil: a guide – An examination of the region’s nine states between 2018 and 2022”, an independent production started from a survey of the main events of the socioenvironmental agenda in the four years of Bolsonaro’s administration in all states that make up the region known as “Legal Amazon” in Brazil.

The material was written based on an active listening process carried out between May and July 2022 with the collection of 19 testimonials from people working in the territories covered by the guide. Communicators, researchers, indigenous and community leaders, and activists were heard. The interviews directed the research and, combined with the best available data, resulted in a qualified and thorough report on the region that occupies almost 60% of the national territory. 

The Guide presents an overview of what the Brazilian Legal Amazon is, contextualizing the reader with geographic and socioenvironmental information and the main political and economic drivers of forest destruction and violence. It brings a selection of data produced by relevant scientific institutes and civil society organizations from the region, and a survey of emblematic cases, violent deaths and indicators of the growing threats faced by native peoples in these areas.

The publication also details the movements of the National Congress in this scenario of dispute over land and environmental resources, highlighting four bills in progress in the federal houses and the behavior of state governments and their parliamentary caucuses regarding the so-called Destruction Package, a series of legislative proposals that profoundly change the use and management of land in the country. Moreover, the guide organizes timelines with the main events monitored by Smoke Signal over the past four years, mapping the main fake news and disinformation campaigns related to weakening environmental protections promoted in each of the states. Finally, it highlights critical areas and high-impact projects for the populations and biodiversity that will likely continue to be the subject of political bargaining after the elections. 

Federal Police agents served seven preventive arrest warrants and ten search and seizure warrants in an operation in Vale do Javari [Javari Valley] (AM), region where the murder of indigenous expert Bruno Pereira and British journalist Dom Phillips happened, in June. Three suspected of participating in the concealment of the victims’ bodies were arrested, all relatives of Amarildo Costa de Oliveira, who is under detention since July 9.

The targets of the Federal Police action, carried out in the Amazonian municipalities of Atalaia do Norte and Benjamin Constant, are suspected of being part of a gang dedicated to illegal fishing in Vale do Javari.

After the Federal Police confirmed the murder of indigenous activist Bruno Pereira and British journalist Dom Phillips, protests by employees of the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI) took the country by storm. Of the 52 units of the agency, 42 hosted demonstrations during the national strike of the category. The group demands the resignation of the president of FUNAI, Marcelo Xavier, the deepening of the investigation into the death of Bruno and Dom, and more security in the Javari Valley (AM), where the crime occurred.

On the same day and in alliance with the movement of public employees, the indigenous movement occupied the streets of São Paulo and Brasília in protest against the postponement by the Federal Supreme Court (STF) of the vote of the “Marco Temporal” [Temporal Landmark], a trial that could define the future of indigenous lands demarcation. The trial was scheduled to resume on the 2nd, but Minister Luiz Fux, president of the STF, announced its postponement indefinitely.

With the active participation of indigenous people in the search, the Federal Police (PF) confirmed that the mortal remains found on June 15th are those of the activist and indigenous expert Bruno Pereira and British journalist Dom Phillips, who have been missing since June 5th in the region of Vale do Javari in the Amazon.

So far, three suspects have been arrested: Amarildo da Costa Pereira, known as Pelado, Jefferson da Silva Lima, and Oseney da Costa de Oliveira, known as Dos Santos. Pelado was the only one to confess to the crime. In a note, the PF a indicated that there may be more suspects involved in the crime and ruled out the possibility of an organization behind the crime. “The investigations also point out that the executors acted alone, and there was no criminal organization behind the crime,” the text says.

The Union of Indigenous Peoples of Vale do Javari (Unijava), responsible for initiating the searches, repudiated the statement and said it had already presented to the PF evidence of the actions of a criminal organization in the region.  “With this statement, the PF disregards the qualified information, offered by UNIVAJA in numerous letters, since the second half of 2021, the period of implementation of the EVU. Such documents point to the existence of an organized criminal group acting in the constant invasions of the Vale do Javari Indigenous Land, of which Pelado and Do Santo are part,” says the note.

The case has generated strong mobilization from civil society and the international press, which have demanded clarifications and justice. After the remains were found, Brasília, Belém and São Paulo hosted demonstrations in solidarity with Bruno and Dom and against Bolsonaro’s management of the Amazon region.

Bruno Araújo Pereira, an indigenista [an indigenous expert], who’s a member with the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI), and a British journalist, Dom Phillips, disappeared last weekend on the way from the riverside community of São Rafael to Atalaia do Norte, in the Javari Valley in the Amazon, on the border with Peru. According to information from the Union of Indigenous Peoples of the Javari Valley (Univaja), which was in contact with the missing, Bruno is under constant threats from loggers, illegal gold diggers, and fishermen in the region.

According to Amazônia Real, Bruno and Dom were the victims of an ambush. An indigenous source interviewed by the portal reports that “around 4 a.m. on Sunday (5), the expert and the journalist warned that they were going to talk with “Churrasco”, president of the São Rafael community association. Days before, they had already crossed paths with another group in a 60 HP boat, a motor considered unusual for navigating narrower waterways (boreholes and streams). This group that crossed paths with them made a point of showing that it they were armed and intimidated them”, says the report.

The news mobilized various indigenous and environmental organizations, which drew attention to the vulnerable context of the region and called for a speedy search. Reports from the region indicate that the government was slow to take action and sent insufficient teams, denying even the support of a helicopter. The Army, in a note, said it had the means to help but was “awaiting an order from the higher echelon”. The search has been carried out largely by indigenous people and Univaja.

The state government of Minas Gerais has granted an environmental license to the mining company Taquaril Mineração S.A. (Tamisa) to build a mining complex in the Serra do Curral, a mountainous region located between the municipalities of Belo Horizonte, Nova Lima and Sabará. The project will occupy an area of 101.24 hectares, equivalent to 121 soccer fields.

The municipality of Belo Horizonte and the Public Ministry of Minas Gerais have filed actions in court to reverse the decision. Activists, social movements and civil society organizations launched the campaign “Tira o pé da minha Serra” [Hands off my Serra], which calls for the installation of a parliamentary investigation commission to investigate the bidding process.

Specialists say that a mining can increase deforestation in the region and compromise the water supply for the city of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais’s capital.

Members of a rural community in the Para municipality of Anapu are under threat: they have been victims of attacks by hooded and armed men, who burned down two houses. According to the families, the invaders claimed that they were claiming back the land. The community is located in lot 96 of Gleba Bacajá, a region that is the target of dispute between groups of small farmers and the heirs of rancher Antônio Borges Peixoto.

The Pastoral Land Commission (CPT) launched the 36th edition of its annual report, which gathers data on conflicts and violence suffered by rural workers in Brazil. The survey “Conflicts in Rural Brazil 2021” registered 1,768 conflicts, of which 1,242 were land disputes, 304 water and labor disputes, and 169 labor disputes.

Despite the 14% drop in total occurrences compared to 2020 (2,054, the highest rate since 2011), there was a 75% increase in murders (from 20 to 35), 80% (28) occurred in the Legal Amazon region.  Most of the victims were indigenous people (10).  The organization also highlights the occurrence of two massacres: the massacre that killed at least three Moxihatëtëa indigenous people in the Yanomami Indigenous Land (RR), and the murder of three landless people in the Ademar Ferreira Camp (RO).

In three years of the Bolsonaro government, the CPT registered 5,725 conflicts in the countryside, the highest number since 1985, the first year of publication.

Two army officers have been identified as the responsible for a network of 14 fake profiles and nine Facebook pages, as well as 39 Instagram accounts, used for attacking NGOs and environmentalists and spreading lies about the Amazon and environmental issues in Brazil.

The information was shared by the company in its quarterly report on threats made by users. “We cannot share many details of how our investigation reached the military. The more we share, the more these networks are able to hide. We use technical and behavioral signals,” Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s head of global security policy, told the newspaper Estado de S. Paulo.

The Federal Supreme Court (STF) has set aside March 30 for the trial of seven lawsuits with socio-environmental themes, signed by opposition parties. According to the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo, the initiative to close a “green package” is led by the ministers Cármen Lúcia and Rosa Weber, with the support of the president of the STF, Luiz Fux. The movement comes after the Act for the Earth, which brought together, on March 9, artists, activists, indigenous leaders, along with thousands of people, in front of the Esplanade of the Ministries in Brasilia (DF), against the set of bills being considered in Congress that threaten the country’s environmental policy.

The actions are about fighting deforestation and fires, protecting the Amazon, air quality standards and environmental licenses. With the exception of ADI 6148, filed by the Attorney General’s Office (PGR), which questions the resolution of the National Council on the Environment (CONAMA), all the actions have opposition parties as authors, with the support of NGOs that participate as amicus curiae (friend of the court), offering subsidies for a technical opinion on the agenda.