Along border with Venezuela, Colombian guerrillas lure unemployed Indigenous youths into drug trade, extortion rackets and armed conflict.
Category: Indigenous people
Colombian drug runners turn to shamans for protection
Before embarking on a perilous trek through the jungle, drug couriers in Colombia turn to shamans for protection.
The poorest narcos in the drug-trafficking chain
The poorest narcos in the trafficking chain risk even their own children to deliver drugs to criminal organizations.
Armed groups threaten Indigenous lands in southern Venezuela
In Venezuela’s southern Amazon region, Pemón Indigenous communities are caught between encroaching armed groups and illegal gold miners.
Despite lawsuit, Casino Group still sells beef from an Amazonian Indigenous land
A new investigation shows that farms located in the Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau Indigenous Territory in the Brazilian Amazon supplied two JBS meatpacking plants that sell beef to brands of the French supermarket giant.
Deforestation in the Amazon: past, present and future
According to a new study from RAISG, in just five years, the Amazon could lose almost half of what it lost in the past two decades.
‘The fight goes on’: four indigenous leaders from Amazonia outline their expectations for the next four years
In a conversations with InfoAmazonia, Maial Kaiapó, Samela Sateré-Mawé, Júnior Hekurari Yanomami and Alessandra Korap Munduruku spoke about the historically important establishment of the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples, and the sense of relief following the dismantling of environmental policies.
Funai to seek support from the Amazon Fund: ‘things are destitute’, says Joenia Wapichana
Funai’s new president, who took office on February 3, told InfoAmazonia in an interview that the [agency’s] budget for demarcating and protecting Indigenous Territories is approximately R$ 90,000, which means she will be looking for alternatives for getting the agency back up and working.
From Bolivia to the Tapajós: mercury trafficking for wildcat mining operations on Munduruku Indigenous Territories
InfoAmazonia visited location where illegal mercury is sold along the border between Bolivia and Brazil, for illegal use by wildcat gold mining operations in Amazonia. After the Minamata Convention, Bolivia became the world’s largest mercury importer and it is estimated that half of the metal is sold as contraband to neighboring countries including Brazil, which has eliminated its legal mercury imports.
A legacy of broken promises
Lindaura Cariajano Chuje scrambled up the riverbank and strode into the forest, following a path only she could see. A step ahead of her, a young man with a machete cleared the way as she gave instructions: A little to the left, a bit to the right, now straight ahead. It was a muggy morning […]