Gangs taking villages on Brazil-Peru border ‘hostage’, say Indigenous leaders

Masked gunmen entered homes in the Brazilian village of Apiwtxa, within the Amazon Forest, earlier this month. Photograph: Jorge Sáenz/AP View image in fullscreen Masked gunmen entered homes in the Brazilian village of Apiwtxa, within the Amazon Forest, earlier this month. Photograph: Jorge Sáenz/AP Gangs taking villages on Brazil-Peru border ‘hostage’, say Indigenous leaders Delegation sent to Brasília after gunmen from organised crime group enter homes in western Amazon Forest Indigenous leaders on the Brazil-Peru border say their communities are being “taken hostage” by organised crime groups who are running rampant across the region, destroying Amazon Forest, building roads and trafficking drugs. Earlier this month, masked men armed with semi-automatic weapons entered homes in Apiwtxa, a village in the Kampa do Rio Amônia Indigenous Territory, intimidating people and searching for targets. The Asháninka people, who have faced threats from intruders for decades due to their efforts to protect the forest and eject narco smugglers, say this is the worst danger they have faced, prompting an emergency delegation to Brasília this week to appeal for support from the government of president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. “Either the state steps in to provide protection, or communities will start organising to defend themselves – and that would be disastrous,” said Francisco Piyãko, general coordinator of the Organization of Indigenous People of the Juruá River, who is part of the delegation. “We are not facing a local conflict. We are facing the expansion of transnational criminal networks into Indigenous territories that currently represent one of the last barriers against the illegal occupation of this region of the Amazon.” View image in fullscreen The Asháninka Indigenous people are seeking protection from the Brazilian government. Photograph: Jorge Sáenz/AP The petition of the Asháninka people comes amid growing concerns about the nexus of drug trafficking and environmental crime, which Brazilian climate scientist Carlos Nobre has described as the greatest new threat to the Amazon Forest. The Brazil side of the border is in Acre state, where the forest is still relatively healthy compared with the Peruvian side, which has experienced heavy logging and violence. Acre has sometimes been a perilous area for environmental and land defenders. One of the country’s most celebrated forest campaigners, Chico Mendes , was shot dead there in 1988. After that, there was a period of relative peace in Acre, compared with other countries in the Amazon or other Brazilian states such as Pará. More recently, however, there has been a rise in tension, much of it from the outside. Isolated Indigenous communities from Peru have been increasingly crossing the border to escape confrontation with loggers and drug cartels. Apiwtxa was the last indigenous village visited by the British journalist Dom Phillips before he was murdered in the neighbouring Brazilian border state