Brazilian official who spent more than a decade protecting uncontacted Amazon tribes is shot dead ‘execution-style’ in front of his family
- Maxciel Pereira dos Santos reportedly shot twice in the head in front of family
- Mr Santos spent more than 12 years working to protect Amazon’s indigenous
- Union claim murder came as retaliation for his work combating illegal hunters
Maxciel Pereira dos Santos was shot twice in the head in front of his family, according to a union that represents workers like him
A Brazilian government official has reportedly been shot execution style in front of his family after spending 12 years working to protect indigenous people in the Amazon.
Maxciel Pereira dos Santos was shot twice in the head in front of his family, according to a union that represents workers like him.
Mr Santos was reportedly shot while riding a motorbike down a main street of Tabatinga, located deep in the Amazon rainforest on Brazil’s border with Colombia and Peru.
He had spent more than 12 years working for the National Indian Foundation, Funai, which is a government body that protects the rights of indigenous people.
INA cited evidence that his murder occurred in retaliation for Santos’ role in combating illegal invasions by hunters, loggers and gold miners in the Vale do Javari reservation, home to the world’s highest concentration of uncontacted indigenous tribes.
Brazilian newspaper Folha de S.Paulo said police were investigating whether Mr Santos’s death was related to his work at Funai but did not have enough information to determine the motivation behind the crime.
Mr Santos’s death comes amid the ongoing rage of intense fires in the Amazon rainforest.
Mr Santos was reportedly shot while riding a motorbike down a main street of Tabatinga, located deep in the Amazon rainforest on Brazil’s border with Colombia and Peru
Mr Santos’s death comes amid the ongoing rage of intense blazes in the Amazon rainforest which has seen Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro come under fire
In just seven days in August more than 9,500 fires ripped through Brazil’s dense rainforest and activists claimed most of them will have been set by men working in the jungle, clearing land for cattle and logging.
Despite Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s claims that uncontrollable blazes are frequent during the ‘queimada’, the annual slash-and-burn, an 84 per cent increase on last year cannot be attributed to the dry season alone.
Despite Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s claims that uncontrollable blazes are frequent during the ‘queimada’, the annual slash-and-burn, an 84 per cent increase on last year cannot be attributed to the dry season alone
‘It is very difficult to have natural fires in the Amazon; it happens but the majority come from the hand of humans,’ said Paulo Moutinho, co-founder of the Amazon Environmental Research Institute.
Bolsonaro has come under fire amid claims that he isn’t doing enough to help tackle the raging blazes.
In August Brazil rejected £18million in aid from G7 countries to help tackle the fires.