Tragic! Brazil Worker Who Protected Indigenous Tribes In Amazon Killed In Front Of His Family

A Brazlian government official and human rights defender who spent over a decade to protect indigenous people in the Amazon from loggers, miners and other threats to their way of life has been killed in front of his family.

AFP

Maxciel Pereira dos Santos was shot dead in the town of Tabatinga, close to where seven Latin American leaders signed a treaty to protect the Amazon, reported AFP.

The murdered activist had worked for the past 12 years to protect indigenous people in the Tabatinga area, close to Brazil's borders with Peru and Colombia, an association of rights defenders said.

Dos Santos "was murdered in cold blood on a busy avenue at 6:00 pm in front of his family" the association of indigenous protection workers said on its website.

All the indications were he was murdered "because of his fight against illegal practices in the indigenous territory of Vale do Javari," it said.

The Vale do Javari is home to "the largest number of isolated indigenous people in the world," and "a permanent target of criminal organizations for illegal exploitation of hunting, fishing, timber and gold."

At least four attacks have been carried out on rights defenders in the area over the past year, it said.

AFP

He 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, said The UK Telegrap.

Officials at INA, a union that represents Funai workers, claimed Mr Santos was killed in retaliation for work at the Vale do Javari reservation, which has the world¡¯s highest concentration of uncontacted indigenous tribes.

Police in Brazil are investigating the murder.

(With agency inputs)