Latest news with #RaoniMetuktire
The Guardian
07-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Bolsonaro wanted to exterminate us, claims Indigenous leader Raoni Metuktire
Brazil's most revered Indigenous leader, Raoni Metuktire, has said he believes that one of the former president Jair Bolsonaro's goals while in office was to 'exterminate' the country's Indigenous peoples. According to the Kayapó chief, the far-right populist 'encouraged invasions, mining and deforestation' in order to hand Indigenous lands over to the kubẽ (non-Indigenous people). 'He really wanted to exterminate us,' Metuktire says in his new book, Memórias do Cacique (The Chief's Memoirs), recently released in Portuguese, its cover featuring Metuktire with his trademark lip plate and bright yellow feather headdress. 'But Indigenous peoples across Brazil united to resist his government,' he says, adding that 'from now on, every president elected in Brazil must respect Indigenous peoples'. Metuktire, 88, has gained international recognition since the 1980s for his efforts to combat environmental destruction and protect Indigenous lands, and he became a frequent target of Bolsonaro, whose administration coincided with a sharp rise in deforestation in the Amazon. In the book, the Indigenous leader says Bolsonaro began appearing in his dreams towards the end of the president's term. 'I told him [in the dream]: 'Just wait, you'll be out of the presidency. I'll remove you,'' he says. The Guardian contacted Bolsonaro for comment but did not receive a response. In January 2023, Metuktire stood alongside Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as the leftist took office for a third term, having defeated Bolsonaro in the 2022 election. In the book, the chief recalls telling Lula that he could not 'repeat the mistakes of the past'. He says Indigenous communities were 'deceived' during Lula's previous administration, particularly with the construction of the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam on the Xingu River. Despite his criticism over the dam's construction, the overall tone towards Lula is one of trust and cautious hope. The book, not yet scheduled for English translation, is the result of more than 80 hours of interviews given to Metuktire's 'grandchildren', a term that includes biological descendants and younger members of the community who are not blood-related. The interviews were conducted and transcribed in the Indigenous language Mẽbêngôkre and translated into Portuguese with support from Fernando Niemeyer, an anthropologist who led the research for the book. Through this work, Niemeyer was able to determine Metuktire's year of birth – until now only an estimate, as there were no official records – as 1937. The exact date, however, remains uncertain. The chief recalls moments including his tour across 13 countries in the late 1980s alongside the rock star Sting to denounce the destruction of Brazil's forests and raise funds for the demarcation of Indigenous lands. Metuktire remembers being at Sting's home when they saw on the news that the environmentalist Chico Mendes had been murdered by ranchers illegally occupying protected land. 'After lunch, Sting came over to me and said: 'Let's talk. Raoni, I'm worried about you. They've just killed Chico Mendes because he was fighting for the forest. Find people you trust to manage this money, and take care of yourself in this struggle,'' the chief says. The narrative does not follow a linear chronology. Instead, the book weaves together personal accounts, myths, dreams and songs – a deliberate choice, Niemeyer explains, to preserve the way Metuktire sees and relates to the world. 'For centuries, our colonial tradition worked to erase Indigenous memory,' the anthropologist said, noting that there were still very few autobiographies by Brazilian Indigenous leaders. 'Until quite recently, the ones writing about Indigenous people were white – and there were practically no Indigenous voices writing about whites.' The memoir is also a call to arms and unity for the younger generations, with frequent scoldings for, in Metuktire's view, drifting away from tradition. 'I still feel strong enough to keep fighting,' Metuktire says, 'but my grandchildren must carry this struggle forward.' He is expected to name his successor as chief next month.
Yahoo
14-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Toxic gold: The true cost of illegal mining in the Amazon forest
From above, the Amazon rainforest appears as a dense, emerald-green paradise, but as the plane descends, the damaged landscape becomes visible with its gaping wounds carved by illegal gold mining. Patches of bare soil, muddy pits and pools of rust-coloured water holes replace the once-thriving canopy now reduced to a barren wasteland which is often laced with toxic pollutants. The impact is severe, harming the environment, wildlife and the Indigenous communities who depend on the forest to survive. "I am very worried. If they carry on like this and mine in our area, they will destroy nature - with effects that will be felt by the whole world," chief of the Kayapó people, Raoni Metuktire, tells dpa. He has become an internationally recognized symbolic figure thanks to his decades-long commitment to preserving the Amazon rainforest and indigenous cultures. A recent report by the environmental organization Greenpeace shows that despite the measures taken by the current government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to curb illegal gold mining on indigenous land, mining activities have not decreased. They have merely shifted from one indigenous area to another. Greenpeace has been documenting gold mining activities in four important indigenous territories in northern Brazil for years with the help of satellite data and overland flights, which also enable journalistic research. While illegal mining declined between 2023 and 2024 in the Yanomami region (down 7%), the Munduruku region (down 57%) and the Kayapó region (down 31%), it increased sharply in the Sararé region by 93%. In the last two years, 4,219 hectares of rainforest have been destroyed by gold prospectors in these areas alone - an area equivalent to around half the size of the Manhattan borough of New York City in the United States. Massive environmental damage caused by mercury Illegal gold prospectors, known as garimpeiros in Portuguese, enter protected areas, set up their camps and try to find gold. They often cut down large areas of trees and dig deep holes. Machines and equipment such as excavators and pumps can be seen flying overhead. Approaching the prospectors could be dangerous. "They are aware of the illegality of their activities and could be armed," explains Jorge Eduardo Dantas, Greenpeace spokesman in Brazil. If the gold miners make a find, large quantities of highly toxic chemicals such as mercury are used to extract the gold from the rock. They pollute the water and often kill fish. The indigenous inhabitants can suffer irreversible damage to their nervous systems. "Visual impairment, learning and developmental disorders in children can be the result," explains Harald Gross, Greenpeace forest protection expert. A study published last year by the national research institute Oswaldo Cruz Institute shows that 84% of the population in nine Yanomami villages were exposed to high mercury levels. It is not uncommon for the gold mining areas to be operated by criminal networks linked to drug cartels. According to Greenpeace, this also leads to acts of violence and deadly attacks against the indigenous people. Gold miners victims of human trafficking Yet the garimpeiros themselves are not always the villains - they are often victims, too. Driven by poverty, many are drawn to gold mining as one of the few ways to earn a living. But the job comes with risks. According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Brazil, as many as 40% of Amazon gold miners may be victims of human trafficking and forced labour. Rising demand for gold fuels illegal mining "The price of gold is currently at a historic high, the business is mega lucrative," says Gross. The rising global demand for gold is fuelling illegal mining in the Amazon region, he adds. According to the Greenpeace report, the gold is smuggled via opaque trade chains, often mixed with gold from legal mines and sold via middlemen before it enters international trade. "The gold passes through so many hands and is remelted again and again, making it difficult to provide real proof of origin," says Gross. A study by the Escolhas Institute last year shows that 94% of the Brazilian gold imported by the European Union comes from the states of Pará and Amazonas - regions with a high probability of illegal gold mining. In 2023, Germany, Italy and the Czech Republic imported a total of 1.5 tons of gold from these regions. Lula plans to take countermeasures In contrast to his predecessor, former president Jair Bolsonaro, who was in favour of exploiting the Amazon region and was in favour of gold mining in indigenous areas, Lula had promised to strengthen environmental and climate protection. The environmental authority Ibama repeatedly carries out raids in which gold miners' equipment is destroyed. However, according to Greenpeace, continuous and ongoing monitoring and checks are needed to ensure that the miners do not return once the raids are over. The Escolhas study emphasises that more transparency is needed in the supply chain. This year in particular, Brazil is in the public eye: the UN Climate Change Conference COP30 will take place in the Brazilian Amazon city of Belém in November.
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
How a Brazilian chief is staving off Amazon destruction
You don't need a GPS to find the home turf of the Amazon's most famous resident, Brazilian Chief Raoni Metuktire. As you approach his Capoto/Jarina Indigenous territory in Mato Grosso state, large single-crop farms of soybean or maize give way to lush, verdant rainforest. This is the epicenter of a half-century battle led by the globe-trotting activist against illegal miners and loggers hacking away at the world's biggest rainforest. Instantly recognizable by his wooden lip plate and feathery headdress, Raoni's date of birth is unknown, but he is believed to be about 90. Three decades ago, he toured the world with British activist-rock star Sting to press for Indigenous rights. His home village of Metuktire, named after his clan belonging to the Kayapo people, is accessible chiefly by boat along the Xingu River, a tributary of the Amazon. The formidable chief lived most of his life in one of the straw-and-wood huts arranged in a wide circle around a forest clearing. He now resides mostly in the nearby city of Peixoto de Azevedo for health reasons, but will be back on his home soil Friday to receive President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Raoni told AFP in an interview ahead of the visit that he would press Lula to halt plans for an oil mega-project at the mouth of the Amazon river, and urge that the community should get custodianship of a bigger slice of forest. "I don't allow illegal miners or timber traffickers on our land," the chief told AFP emphatically. Raoni's 1,600-strong community has a two-pronged approach to defending its ancestral homeland: conducting patrols against intruders and teaching Indigenous youth to resist the temptation of getting rich quick at the cost of rainforest destruction. Only 0.15 percent of Capoto/Jarina territory, which occupies an area four times the size of the mega-city of Sao Paulo, has been affected by deforestation, according to official statistics. - 'This land is ours' - Designating land as Indigenous territory -- where deforestation is a crime -- has proven effective in holding back the ferocious onslaught from illegal mining and agriculture. Indigenous territories have lost less than 2.0 percent of their native plant species since 2008, compared to 30 percent on non-Indigenous lands, according to the Socio-Environmental Institute, a Brazilian NGO. Bu to have his clan's land recognized as Indigenous territory by the state, Raoni had to resort to desperate measures. Brazilian media have recounted how in 1984 he and his nephew hijacked a ferry, taking hostage officials from the military dictatorship then in power. Forty days later, the state conceded. "Garimpeiros (miners) and Whites wanted to occupy our land, but we fought until we expelled them forever," Beptok Metuktire, another leader of the community, where most use the clan name as a surname, told AFP. "We showed them that this territory is ours," the 67-year-old added in the community's Kayapo language. - 22,000 football fields - Indigenous lands are nonetheless under attack, stripped every year of thousands of hectares of native vegetation. Near the Capoto/Jarina territory, in an area inhabited by other branches of Raoni's Kayapo people, the emerald-green jungle is pockmarked by huge brown craters and pools of brackish water -- the hallmarks of illegal gold mining. AFP saw dozens of hydraulic excavators operated by workers camped out at the site during a flight organized by environmental NGO Greenpeace. Kayapo territory has lost the equivalent of 22,000 football fields of forest to illegal gold mining, according to Greenpeace, which notes the growing presence of organized crime groups such as Comando Vermelho, one of Brazil's biggest gangs, in the region. "White people persuade some Indigenous leaders to mine for gold, which leads to disputes and even murders among families," said Roiti Metuktire, territorial protection coordinator at the Raoni Institute, which defends Indigenous rights. "Changing this is difficult because people got used to the money from crime and because the land has already been degraded, they don't have anything to eat," he said. - 'End of our world' - While Raoni's homeland has so far managed to ward off the worst threats, one looms larger than ever: wildfires. The Brazilian Amazon was ravaged by a staggering 140,000 fires last year -- many of them started to clear land for livestock or crops. A blaze in Capoto/Jarina wiped out crops and medicinal plants, fellow community leader Pekan Metuktire said. "When I was young, the climate in this village was normal. But now the sun burns, the land dries up and the rivers overflow. If this continues, it's the end of our world," he added. The community hopes that UN conference on climate change that Lula will host in the Amazon city of Belem in November will help halt the destruction. Ngreikueti Metuktire, a 36-year-old woman, summed up the tall task awaiting Brazil's leader, before heading to the fields to harvest cassava. "We need Lula to speak to the world to ensure the future of our grandchildren." ffb/app/cb/mlr/tgb
