The Middle Javari river warriors

The Middle Javari River is surrounded by illegal activities that intend to dominate the territory of the indigenous people. Last March, Amazônia Real’s journalists visited the Vale do Javari Indigenous Territory, in the Amazonas state, where we heard reports of invasions and also learned about the efforts being made by the indigenous people to combat these threats and other crimes. In 2022, the Kanamari were setting up the group Forest Warriors, and heard from Bruno Pereira a promise that he would return in 15 days to teach them how to surveil their territories. On June 5th, the Brazilian indigenist and the British journalist Dom Phillips were murdered in the Javari Valley, so the Kanamari moved on.

Por Elaíze Farias, Bruno Kelly (fotos) e Barbara Arisi (Tradução)

TI Vale do Javari (AM) – It is not easy for the indigenous people of the Vale do Javari Indigenous Territory to monitor such an immense forest and its hundreds of rivers and creeks. In the Middle Javari, a border river that divides Brazil and Peru, drug trafficking and timber theft puts pressure on the villages. Aiming to combat illegal logging in the Médio Javari, the Kanamari created the group Warriors of the Forest, formed by 36 men. They alternate in monitoring the region in periodic expeditions, with their own resources and without support from governmental institutions. Instead of being protected, they have to guarantee their own protection.

The Kanamari (who call themselves “Tükuna”) are skilful connoisseurs of the “furos” [literally translated by “holes” or short cut in the long river meanders]. Via the “furos”, they travel in the waters to cut their way through branches, leaves, sticks and vines. They walk silently through the tangle of trees, seeking to keep on going under a light rain, after a storm that hit at dawn. In March of this year, Amazônia Real was invited to participate in one surveillance action. The previous months had been marked by tense episodes and threats. To enter the closed forest, the indigenous men have no GPS or other equipment to help them to choose the best routes. In the absence of this type of device, they are obliged to rely on their knowledge of the forest and the waterways. They would like to be supported by technology and that is why they also struggle to get infrastructural support for their own surveillance work.

In the closed forest, the Forest Warriors soon come across at least two trees ready to be sawn down by illegal loggers. The invaders were not caught by the team. One of the trees was a “caferana” tree, much sought after in the region, according to the indigenous people. The other was a “maçaranduba”.

“They cut down two trees from this area. They look for it more in this area because here there are less people and the river is very far away. They saw them inside the forest so that we don’t hear the chainsaw, it makes the work of the inspectors more difficult”, declared the indigenous leader Kora Kanamari, as he observed the logs on the ground. On this expedition he is accompanied by seven other members of the Forest Warriors.

The logs found on that rainy Sunday in March were left behind because the indigenous people have no way of removing them, and it would be even more difficult if they would try to denounce it for an emergency apprehension by the Federal Police (PF). They have no radio. Mobile phone signs or the internet are entirely unreachable from the area.

Kora Kanamari tells how, in the last five years, Brazilian and Peruvian loggers have re-entered the indigenous territory and the chainsaw noise has started again. Illegal fishing and logging have returned. The drug problem has arrived, with the involvement of indigenous relatives, who are recruited in the communities.When they don’t want to participate on it, the traffickers might try to corner the chiefs. “‘If we find out that you’re having a meeting, against us, you’ll pay’. That’s what they say.”

Lumber

_{Kora Kanamari (white shirt) together with other indigenous people observe illegally felled trees inside the Vale do Javari IL, Amazonas, Brazil (Photo: Bruno Kelly/Amazônia Real).}

Kora comments, a little depressed, that the group Forest Warriors can’t advance with inspections because of their lack of resources. The fuel, which is donated, is always controlled and there is fear for the safety of the indigenous people because they cannot confront the invaders in an armed attack.

“We can only get in here quickly. We don’t have enough boats. We don’t have canoes to enter the narrowest parts, the igapós [flooding areas]. We don’t have proper boots to walk for miles. There are snakes here,” he says, stepping barefoot on the trails of damp leaves and thorns as he surveyed the area where he just witnessed the action of deforesters and timber thieves.

According to Kora, the wood taken from the Vale do Javari IT has an unusual itinerary. It ‘leaves’ the territory, is taken to the Peruvian side, where it is processed and sold in the Brazilian market in the towns of Atalaia do Norte and Benjamin Constant, in Alto Solimões and in the triple border area [Colombia, Peru and Brazil]. The Kanamari say that the traders who deal with the criminals are easily found on the Brazilian side. All we need is that the Police forces investigate their activities.

“That is their strategy. Before [our territory] demarcation, they used to take the wood in logs. Now it’s already sawn. What we’re doing here is difficult surveillance. Today, travelling with you, we spent 160 litres (of petrol). But the ideal should be at least 400 litres a month, that’s for a few days, which costs about 1,200 Reals [240 US dollars]. We have no money. Funai doesn’t help. We have some partners who give us a little financial support”, he says.

Kora Kanamari denounces the incessant theft of wood, the outsiders attacks to their territory and the harassment and threats of drug traffickers that occur in the last four years. Without a solution. Now, under a new federal government in Brazil, he wants to call the attention to President Luís Inácio Lula da Silva and the National Foundation of Indigenous Peoples Foundation (FUNAI) for the need of an emergency, but also permanent, strategy and action for the Vale do Javari IT. They want to leave behind the dark period of the Bolsonaro government. They point out the need for protocols and cooperation agreements between Brazil, Peru and Colombia, in which the security forces of the three countries would act jointly.

“We have our own security team, but we don’t have the support of Funai or any other official body. The Federal Police are not always here. Now we want Funai to do their work with us, in partnership. We don’t have police power, we cannot arrest, but we need to take periodic action, because there is still a lot of invasion [of our territory]“, says Kora Kanamari.

Intimidations and threats

_{Indigenous people from the Kanamari Territorial Surveillance group during monitoring at Lake Caxias, where the pirarucu management project is carried out, near the São Luis village} _{(Photo: Bruno Kelly/Amazônia Real/March 2023).}

Amazônia Real was in the region to visit indigenous villages, including São Luís and Lago do Tambaqui, and to accompany a surveillance expedition. We were also at the Forest Warriors monitoring post, set up by the Kanamari.

It is located in the middle of the Javari River, considered to be the ‘entrance’ of the immense indigenous territory of 8, 5 million hectares, where the criminal alliance between illegal timber extraction and drug trafficking surrounds the Kanamari, Mayoruna, and Kulina peoples, three of the seven indigenous peoples that inhabit the Vale do Javari IT – the others are Marubo, Matís, Korubo, Tyonwük Dyapah (also called Tsohom Djapá) and groups of Indians in voluntary isolation.

In that region, those who do not accept the enticement and intimidation of the narco trafficking agents are threatened and even killed. Many of these acts of violence are not even officially reported to avoid reprisals and assassinations. Sometimes, the reports are scattered, with few details. On the rare occasions that they are reported to the authorities, the fear of being assassinated becomes part of the daily lives of the indigenous people, because the responses from the institutions are delayed or do not ever come.

The indigenous people have very little protection structure; they depend only on their own courage. Their villages are miles away from the official institutions that should protect them. The heads of the villages live “incommunicado” much of the time, they cannot communicate with each other in order to denounce any threat, for lack of communication structure. Not even a simple radio set, as confirmed by Amazônia Real.

The Kanamari are in the defence front line against illegalities in Médio Javari. They are the main barrier against forest destruction in the region. The group Forest Warriors was created in 2020 and, with it, the Kanamari have also started projects to guarantee their livelihood through pirarucu [fish] management. The surveillance and monitoring team, known in the Kanamari language as Kana-An (jaguar or ‘the protector’) is the only one in the Vale do Javari IT, composed and coordinated exclusively by indigenous people.

Kora Kanamari recalls that invasions have increased in the Middle Javari since 2019. In August 2022, just two months after the murders of Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips, the Kanamari were installed at their modest vigilance post when a group of invaders linked to timber theft on the indigenous land and drug trafficking fired three shots at them. The alternative was to retreat and to watch from a distance the fireworks that the invaders let off in celebration. They were possibly Peruvians, according to the indigenous men.

The episode, although publicised by the indigenous people, had little repercussion and only served as a sign that the area of the Vale do Javari Indigenous Territory is one of the most representative of the connection between drug trafficking and other illegal activities. “Médio Javari is a region that is different from other parts of the indigenous land. A lot of people cross through here. People we don’t know navigate it 24 hours a day, crossing through it day and night”, says Kora.

The leaders interviewed by Amazônia Real warn that in the last five years the harassment [of drug traffickers] of their communities has also increased. Some are enticed into their own communities. “The traffickers say: ‘I pay so much for you’ to pick the [coca] leaf, to hunt, to bring us food’. It is very easy to migrate to Peru”, says leader Kora.

The indigenous leader recalls another episode in which the invaders took a cacique from one of the villages in the Médio Javari region and threatened him. “They said [to him]: if we find out that you are holding meetings against us, you will pay the price with your life’. In November [2022] they took two girls from the Lago do Tambaqui community to work on the Peruvian side. The traffickers took them. Months went by. How they were treated, we don’t we don’t know. Then they came back.”

Seizure of timber

_{An indigenous person from the Kanamari Territorial Surveillance group is caught during a patrol in an area of recent illegal logging in the region of the middle Javari river (Photo: Bruno Kelly/Amazônia Real).}

In April of this year, the Association of Kanamari of Vale do Javari (AKAVAJA) reported that four men speaking Spanish and carrying rifles arrived at the village Irari II, also located in the Médio Javari region, and that they threatened the “cacique” [chief of the village]. This episode sums up the fragility and vulnerability in which the indigenous people live.

The criminals came to threaten the indigenous community immediately after the seizure by the Federal Police of timber illegally stolen from indigenous land. The police operation took place on April 15, after a complaint was filed by the Surveillance Team of the Vale do Javari’s Indigenous People Union (EVU, in its Brazilian acronym), who identified a large raft containing at least 300 wood logs on April 11. The EVU is another group of self-defence of the Vale do Javari Indigenous Territory and it has become worldwide renowned for standing alongside Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips until the day they were murdered. A group of Kanamari indigenous people was also part of the EVU. Some of them withdrew from the team after the murders.

In April, the Federal Police informed the press about this timber seizure and informed that they had identified three suspects who provided clarification to the police station chief and promised to “issue a report soon”. What the Federal Police did not inform is that the seized timber was taken away some days later by the illegal loggers. The illegal loggers [who came to threaten the Irari II chief] got irritated by the police operation and suspected that the cacique was the author of the complaint.

The president of the Association of Kanamari of Vale do Javari (Akavaja), who asked not to have his name mentioned in this text, released a note informing of the threat and asking for the authorities’ support, like the Federal Public Ministry and Funai, among others. “The Federal Police made a seizure and left the wood on site with someone responsible, but we don’t know who this person was. The invaders themselves came back later to get the illegally cut timber”, recalls the president of AKAVAJA to Amazônia Real.

Almost ten days after the threat suffered by the indigenous people, AKAVAJA’s president was in the Irari II village alongside federal police officers. He imagined that this was the beginning of some protection, but this was not quite what happened. On the group’s arrival in the Irari II village, the indigenous people ran into the forest, as they thought that the drug traffickers had returned, explains the indigenous leader.

“(The police officers) only stayed in the village for about four hours, they asked questions, they wanted to know the names of the criminals, they took some pictures. Do you think criminals would tells us their names? But we indicated where they could be found. The police didn’t go there. They said they had nothing to do with Peru. What if these invaders would have killed the “cacique” [chief]? What happened is that our complain resulted in nothing and our relatives remained unprotected”, he denounced.

The cacique of the village Irari II, later on, his village, he is traumatised and is receiving psychological support. Even so, according to Amazônia Real found out, he continues to be pursued by criminals. For the president of Akavaja, it is not enough to have a Federal Police surveillance base in Atalaia do Norte, municipality where most of the Vale do Javari Indigenous Territory is located. It is necessary to develop a permanent operation, with the installation of barriers to block the access to the indigenous territory.

In a letter written on April 25, AKAVAJA detailed how the threat to the cacique occurred and criticised the way in which the Federal Police handled the case. “They seized the timber barge, removed it from the indigenous land, but they could not transport it all the way to Atalaia do Norte. The barge was then anchored on the Javari river bank. In less than three days the barge disappeared, probably taken by the criminals themselves”, informs the AKAVAJA document. The indigenous leader participated at the “Acampamento Terra Livre” [Free Land Camp, a national indigenous protest], in Brasilia, last April. There, in the Brazilian capital, he took part in a meeting at the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples and delivered more written documents to the agency.

“It is not enough just to monitor. We need barriers to ‘close [to control] the rivers’ mouths [entrances]. Funai and the Federal Police have to close the mouths of the Itacoaí river, close the mouth of the Curuçá River. Only in this way will they prevent the invaders from entering”, stressed Raimundo Roberto Kanamari, another leader of the ethnic group, teaching how to monitor the large territory. The indigenous people defend the idea that the Federal Police team remain stationary in a post within the Indigenous Territory, preferably in the Middle Javari River region.

A fluid frontier

_{Fishing boat in the region of the middle Javari river, in the Vale do Javari Indigenous Land}₍_{Photo: Bruno Kelly/Amazônia Real).}

While in the Javari Valley, Amazônia Real journalists observed how the crossing from the Brazilian side to the Peruvian side takes no more than a few minutes. The “furos’ [short cuts] in the river are fast tracks between the two countries. It’s tense to navigate the Javari, because on the Peruvian side there are riverside communities where it is suspected there are coca plantations destined for cocaine trafficking. The indigenous people always try to keep a low profile on this subject, because they have a cordial relationship with the residents on the Peruvian side. In these Peruvian communities, trading shops for food products such as rice, biscuits, bread and medicine are common.

A year ago, indigenous Kanamari elders were killed by invaders in the same village Irari II. The indigenous victims’ names will not be revealed in this reportage. “They came into the village to fish and invaded it. Only my grandparents were there at that moment, and the invaders killed them”, he recalls.

One of the most experienced indigenous Forest Warriors group members recounted that ,last February, some unknown men came to the Kanamari surveillance base saying they were going to “fish”. With no weapons and no security, the Indians opted only to remain observing them.

“I told the warrior who was with me: ‘Get ready, we’re going to see who this guy is’. We approached them and they said that they only wanted to fish. It was 11pm, they went past our base and came back. We couldn’t fight back. There were eight men and they had machine guns. What could we do but just try to talk? I told them: ‘We are protecting our land’. Then they left”, he told us. According to him, the invading group only stayed for a short time and their presence was more “to frighten us”.

“This is the border, we are in danger. The Peruvian thieves threaten us when we cross the river in front of their communities. The ‘drug dealers’ threaten us. We see boats of 60 HP, 200 HP, all with heavy weapons”, adds this indigenous source. “That is why we want FUNAI to do something. We are here to demand protection from this new government. Funai is here to take care of the indigenous people.”

Covid delayed the surveillance

_{Aerial view of Aldeia São Luis of the Kanamari people, located in the region of the middle Javari river, in the Vale do Javari Indigenous Land (Photo: Bruno Kelly/Amazônia Real.}

Almost three years ago, the village São Luís was marked for being the first community of the Vale do Javari IT to be contaminated by the new coronavirus. São Luís is the largest village in the Middle Javari River, with approximately 250 indigenous Kanamari. The arrival of Covid-19 paralysed the surveillance actions that the Kanamari had just started to organise.

At the time, fear of the unknown disease led the inhabitants of São Luís to enter deep into the forest in an attempt to seek refuge and escape from the disease. It did not work. Many had already been infected. The Indians treated themselves with forest’s medicines and their traditional knowledge. There were no deaths, but the consequences are still felt today.

“We were strengthening the creation of the Forest Warriors team. We started to build the surveillance base. But in 2020 Covid pandemic came and it weakened us. We spent about six months without surveillance. Nobody could stay under the sun, we suffered from heavy headaches. It was very difficult to hunt and to fish. It was very difficult that time”, recalls Kora.

São Luís is a kind of ‘main village’ of the Middle Javari River region, where there are other seven

villages. It is home to the health centre and to a single public telephone. It is a meeting point for the surveillance actions and the project for the pirarucu fish management project that began three years ago and has as its starting point the Caxias Lake, a tributary of the Middle Javari River.

“We have our land and our air. I care to keep out the fishermen, the loggers and the other invaders, My people are lively, we have culture, we drink ayahuasca. But it is no use fighting alone. We need support. One I asked the people from Funai: ‘Give us 40 litres of petrol so that we can take care of our land’. We didn’t get anything from them”, says Mauro Kanamari, the village chief.

On that rainy Friday afternoon, on the Caxias Lake, the “cacique” [chief] was talking to the Amazônia Real journalists in a small boat when he decided, along with other leaders, to visit the Curuçá River Ethno-environmental Base, about an hour from the village of São Luís. The base of

Curuçá is one of four bases within the Vale do Javari IT built to monitor threats to “isolated” [also called [“autonomous”] indigenous peoples in the territory. Eventually it serves as a support point for reporting and denouncing the invasions.

_{Aerial view of the FUNAI Ethno-Environmental Protection Base on the Curuçá river, in the middle Javari river region (Photo: Bruno Kelly/Amazônia Real).}

“We want to talk to the people”, said the “cacique” to the Base’s personnel. That was before they arrived and found only four Funai officials and three National Force police officers.

Even though they were not happy to be working in such an inhospitable area, the public agents listened to the indigenous people. On the occasion, the Vale do Javari Regional Coordination, linked to FUNAI, still had no one appointed to head the oficial position. Weeks later, Wacirley Durte, of the Marubo people, was nominated for that position. And Itercley Chagas Rodrigues was appointed as the new coordinator of the Ethno-environmental Front of Vale do Javari.

After four years of a disastrous government which encouraged invasions of indigenous

territories, the Kanamari hope that the administration of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will radically modify the protection and surveillance strategies and actions.

“We voted for Lula and we are asking him for help now. We want him to strengthen FUNAI, to order it to look after our land. The people on the [surveillance] base are afraid of the loggers and traffickers. We are here to help Funai as well. The National Force is sent to the surveillance bases, but they need to help as well”, says cacique Mauro. “We want peace, to be able to have our dances, our chants, to get rid of the invaders.”

Autonomy and vigilance

_{Indigenous leader, Adelson Korá Kanamari, while traveling by voadeira (boat with outboard motor) in the region of the middle Javari river, in the Vale do Javari Indigenous Land (Photo: Bruno Kelly/Amazônia Real}_).

“My grandfather Arlindo used to say: ‘This land is ours’. Middle Javari was going to be left out of the demarcation area, but he fought hard to include our region. With the territory ratification in 2001 everything fell silent. No more chainsaw noise. The non-indigenous people were gone. Our “isolated” autonomous indigenous “relatives” returned to the riverbanks, undisturbed,” recalls Kora Kanamari.

In the early years of the 2000s, FUNAI was strengthened and there were operations and inspection work carried out by the Federal Police. “They were good [the inspections and actions to protect the territory] until 2006. In Lula’s first mandate, we lived in peace. In his second term, it wasn’t as good as before. In Rousseff’s and Temer’s mandates, it became a chaos. In the recent years of the Bolsonaro government, we went back to square one, it was very hard. It was like before the territory demarcation. Invaded, with Funai almost closed and the protection bases with no resources”, says the Kanamari leader.

In 2018, with the return of major invasions, they started a project to develop a system for territorial governance. The government of Jair Bolsonaro only intensified the violence in the Javari. Two years later, the Kanamari indigenous people began the construction of their own surveillance base, inspired by an indigenous surveillance patrol developed by the Ashaninka indigenous people, in Acre state, and also by a project of the Deni people, in the Amazonas state. And it is here that the story is joined by an emblematic character, the indigenist Bruno Pereira.

“Bruno helped with logistical support and awareness-raising. He told us not to wait for the government at that moment. We were intelligent enough to take care of our own territory”, recalls Kora Kanamari. The Kanamari are known for their festive temperament. They are singers and love to play and to party. No wonder they like to sing when they are in the forest. It was in one of these moments that they taught Bruno Pereira a Kanamari song, whose video was shown all over the world after his assassination, almost a year ago.

Until today, talking about Bruno Pereira is difficult for the Kanamari. They are moved when his name is mentioned. Chief Mauro Kanamari was saddened when he remembered the song and became speechless when asked about it by the reportage. When he pulled himself together, he said:

“Bruno was better for us. He liked our land, he walked with us. He would go to one place, then walk on. He was almost like a brother, our relative. He sang, played, drank ayahuasca with us, ate with us”, recalls Mauro Kanamari.

“We were very sad when he died. The whole village cried a lot. Many people thought: ‘Will we be able to manage the pirarucu without Bruno? Yes, we will continue, we are warriors, we will take care of our land”, remembers Kora.

Promised reencounter

Bruno Pereira and Dom Philips in Atalaia do Norte, Brazilian Amazon (Photo: Gary Carlton/The Observer)

At the last meeting they had, Bruno Pereira promised the Kanamari that he would spend 15 days with his family and then he would return to Vale do Javari and give special attention to to the actions in the Middle Javari River. He wanted to teach them how to make the Forest Warriors group able to face the threats, just as he had taught the EVU members. But, on June 5, he and journalist Dom Phillips were murdered.

The indigenous people moved on. The area chosen by the Kanamari to maintain a base is strategic, surrounded by seven lakes. The place is rich in different species of fish (pirarucu, tambaqui and surubim). The structure is 50% built. There is the main house, with a small lodge, kitchen and a cabin to install a UHF radio. The whole structure is made of wood, under a straw roof.

They also plan to build a drinking water structure, install water reservoirs and to enlarge the lodge. They want to have a barge and for that they are seeking financial support. They have obtained some money, some from the NGO Centro de Trabalho Indigenista (CTI), which donated resources for the purchase of “quotas” of 600 litres of petrol, axes and machetes. The Union of Indigenous Peoples of Vale do Javari (Univaja), the interethnic association of the indigenous territory, donated two boats with 15 HP and 13 HP engines, slow boats when compared to the more powerful engines of the criminals, but for them it means already a starting point. In recent months, under Lula’s government, they have contacted FUNAI, which never before gave them support.

The Kanamari are also in the process of formalising the Kanamari Autonomous Ethno-Environmental Preservation, in the São Luís village (COPEAKA in its Brazilian acronym). This will enable them to receive financial support directly, without intermediaries.

Escape into the forest

Kanamari women working to clear land in the village (Photo: Elaíze Farias/Amazônia Real)

Navigating through the region is dangerous, but at the same it is beautifully breathtaking. The Middle Javari is a calm river with little current in the middle of a fantastic and endless forest. An icy wind from the rainy season hits the face of those who goes down its waters. In the forest, mosquitoes keep humans company. The most feared is the “pium”. They have fun bathing and diving, fishing, children playing tag and football – which the Kanamari love – and getting food from the forest.

On the day of our arrival, the Kanamari women were weeding the entrance to São Luís village. The children helped and played. It was an arduous and tiring task, but the work in no way compares to how they felt living under Bolsonaro’s government, which they remember very well. The women

like to adorn themselves in their leisure time and make lively comments. But it is enough to mention the former president to bring back memories of the four horrible years they survived through.

Ilda Kanamari, Kora´s mother (Photo: Bruno Kelly/Amazônia Real).

Elizabeth Kanamari (Photo: Bruno Kelly/Amazônia Real).

Tereza Kanamari (Photo: Bruno Kelly/Amazônia Real).

“We were afraid that any invader would land here in our village. If that happened, the villagers would flee into the bush. Now we are happier, because the new government will remove the invaders. We want our land free for our children and grandchildren”, says Tereza Kanamari, married to cacique Mauro.

Elisabeth Kanamari, Tereza’s niece, remembers the four years of fear that they all had, especially when their husbands were working in the Forest Warriors surveillance base to defend the territory. “We thought that the whites were going to kill us. Our husbands go without weapons to the base to defend us. Now we are no longer afraid because of the new president”, she said.

Ilda Kanamari, Kora’s mother, is more implacable. For her, FUNAI is taking its time to act. “We had a government that was no good, which was Bolsonaro. Why hasn’t Funai started to carry out surveillance now, here on our land?”

Managing pirarucu fish

_{Indigenous people treat fish for dinner at the Kanamari territorial surveillance base, in the Middle Javari River region, in IT Vale do Javari (Photo: Bruno Kelly/Amazônia Real).}

When they are not on duty, the Kanamari enjoy themselves between play full and chilling out moments. On a daily basis, they rarely return from hunting without a paca, a curassow, or a tapir. They are excellent fishermen and hunters. There are many species of fish in the Médio Javari, but the biggest and most coveted fish – the pirarucu – is forbidden.

Three years ago, they started a pirarucu management project inspired by other indigenous initiatives. Through the recently created COPEAKA, and with the support of specialists from the Mamirauá Institute, they found a way to avoid the reduction of fish, especially the pirarucu: to learn fish management. Since 2021, the Kanamari and the Mayoruna have stopped catching the species so that the fish population can grow again.

“At the first count, there were 1,500 pirarucus in our lakes. We did mapping and zoning. We did a second count and saw that increased, reaching 1,650. Now, we are going to complete the third count”, he explains. Mamirauá Institute is a research centre, located in the Amazonas state. One of their areas of expertise is the practice of pirarucu management projects.

At the end of this third stage, the Kanamari want to get a “fishing quota” with IBAMA (Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources) to sell the fish in fairs in the municipality of Atalaia do Norte and, later on, also for other markets.

“This is a project of care and protection within our territory. And also sustainability for our indigenous communities. In July, we will have the support of the Paumari [indigenous people from southern Amazonas], who will help us in this project. We want to be autonomous, to walk in our own footsteps, to occupy our own territory. It’s what our grandparents did before demarcation: they occupy our original land. This is also a way of keeping the invaders away”, says the indigenous leader.

Illegal fishermen represent a threat because they do not respect the limits of indigenous lands and they know that ,in the management areas, they can find fish in abundance. The assassins of Bruno and Dom denied to the Police and the Federal that they invaded indigenous territory.

What the authorities say

The Minister of Indigenous Peoples, Sônia Guajajara, during a visit to the Union of Indigenous Peoples of the Javari Valley (Univaja), in Atalaia do Norte (AM) to announce the resumption of actions to protect indigenous peoples (Photo: Marcelo Camargo/Agência Brasil /27/02/2023)

In response to questions from Amazônia Real, Funai states that “the Middle Javari River is a border region with Peru and that FUNAI is is carrying out actions and planning with partner institutions (IBAMA, Federal Police and the Brazilian Army) to curb the invasion of fishermen, hunters and the removal of illegal timber”.

The Funai warns, in an official note, that “with respect to drug trafficking it will be necessary a joint action, binational articulation between the Brazilian and Peruvian states to combat drug trafficking in the Middle Javari River region, seeking a response that takes into account the regional reality and its complexities.”

Since March, the Federal Police maintains a base in Atalaia do Norte, but the agency does not gives details of its activity. Amazônia Real requested an interview with the Federal Police superintendent for the Amazonas state, Umberto Ramos, but we did not get an answer.

We also posted questions to the Federal Police press officer regarding the topics dealt with in the present report. The questions were forwarded to Federal Police chief Daniela Aparecida Martins Vales, stationed in Tabatinga. The police chief said she would answer the questions that “are possible, safeguarding the operational and strategic confidentiality of the work of the Federal Police. She reiterated that the Federal Police base is installed in the town of Atalaia do Norte, near the Vale do Javari IT and that the actions “took place in some diligence”, such as monitoring the rivers (which she did not identify, for “operational reasons”).

Martins stressed the “importance of the activities of the Federal Police in the area, in order to increase its security, with a reduction in criminality, articulation with other institutions, representatives of indigenous communities in the region, among others”. Regarding the seized timber, the delegate informed that “there were no arrests, but there were seizures of alleged environmental crimes, initiating investigations that are currently underway”.

On 27 February, a federal government delegation composed of the Minister for Indigenous Peoples (MIP), Sonia Guajajara, and the president of FUNAI, Joenia Wapichana, visited Atalaia do Norte. The authorities received a group of indigenous people and a document delivered by the Union of Indigenous Peoples of the Javari Valley Javari (Univaja) representatives. A promise was made to include indigenous people under threat in witness protection programs and to take governmental actions within the indigenous territory.

The MPI informed Amazônia Real that it is articulating, within the scope of the Interministerial Committee for Coordination, Planning and Monitoring of Actions to avoid intrusion of Indigenous Territories, a specific working group to deal with the security issue in Vale do Javari. In addition to negotiations with the Ministry of Justice, to have the support of the Federal Police and the National Public Security Force Public Security Force to combat illicit activities on the Javari River and on other nearby riverbeds.

“We are in negotiations to increase resources with the objective of strengthening the structures of FUNAI’s surveillance bases for the ethnic-environmental protection”, stated the MPI answer to Amazônia Real.

The MPI also informs that it is in negotiations to increase the number of human resources, as well as budgetary resources to reform the FUNAI Bases’ physical structures. The body said it is necessary to build a new base of operations in Vale do Javari.

Regarding the Federal Police barge, in Atalaia do Norte, the MPI says that it requested the agency to move it to an area closer to the indigenous territory and it had requested regular patrols. In relation to the structural improvements in the communities, the MPI said that it is creating a Working Group to accompany the territorial protection actions in the region.

Aerial view of the middle Javari river region, in the Vale do Javari Indigenous Land, Amazonas, Brazil. Região onde Bruno Pereira e Dom Philips foram assassinados (Photo: Bruno Kelly/Amazônia Real).
Region of the middle Javari river, in the Vale do Javari Indigenous Land, Amazonas, Brazil. March, 2023. Region where Bruno Pereira and Dom Philips were murdered (Photo: Bruno Kelly/Amazônia Real).
View of the Javari river and forest during a cloudy morning near the village of São Luis of the Kanamari people, region where Bruno Pereira and Dom Philips were murdered (Photo: Bruno Kelly/Amazônia Real).
Aerial view of the Kanamari Territorial Surveillance base in the region of the middle Javari river, in the Vale do Javari Indigenous Land, (Photo: Bruno Kelly/Amazônia Real/March 2023).
Indigenous people from the Kanamari Territorial Surveillance group prepared for an inspection on Lake Caxias, where the Pirarucu management project is being developed (Photo: Bruno Kelly/Amazônia Real).
Indigenous members of the Guerreiros da Floresta team, on a trip to Lago do Caxias, a tributary of the Middle Javari, in the Vale do Javari IL (Photo: Bruno Kelly/Amazônia Real).
Chief Mauro Kanamari, wearing a headdress, (left) leads a group of Kanamari Territorial Surveillance Indigenous People during the monitoring of Lake Caxias (Photo: Bruno Kelly/Amazônia Real).
Indigenous from the Kanamari Territorial Surveillance group during monitoring of Lake Caxias, where the pirarucu management project is taking place, near the São Luis village (Photo: Bruno Kelly/Amazônia Real).
Indigenous people from the Kanamari Territorial Surveillance group during a search for illegal deforestation in the region of the middle Javari river, in the Vale do Javari Indigenous Land (Photo: Bruno Kelly/Amazônia Real).
Indigenous people from the Kanamari Territorial Surveillance group during a round to combat illegal deforestation in the region of the middle Javari rive. (Photo: Bruno Kelly/Amazônia Real/March 2023).
Indigenous people from the Kanamari Territorial Surveillance group arriving at the São Luis village after monitoring Lake Caxias, where the pirarucu management project is taking place (Photo: Bruno Kelly/Amazônia Real).
Indigenous people hold an emergency meeting at the FUNAI Ethnic Environmental Protection Base on the Curuçá river, to report possible theft of wood (Photo: Bruno Kelly/Amazônia Real).
Chief Mauro at his home in the São Luis village of the Kanamari people, located in the region of the middle Javari river, in the Vale do Javari Indigenous Land (Photo: Bruno Kelly/Amazônia Real).
Detail of the collar of Chief Mauro of the São Luis village of the Kanamari people, located in the region of the middle Javari river, in the Vale do Javari Indigenous Land (Photo: Bruno Kelly/Amazônia Real).
Cacique Mauro arriving in a voadeira (boat with an outboard motor) after a round in search of deforestation, at the base of the Kanamari Territorial Surveillance, recently set up by them (Photo: Bruno Kelly/Amazônia Real).
An indigenous person is seen at the end of the wooden walkway at the Kanamari Territorial Surveillance base, recently set up by them, in the region of the middle Javari river (Photo: Bruno Kelly/Amazônia Real).
FUNAI Base for Ethnic Environmental Protection on the Curuçá river, in the region of the middle Javari river, in the Vale do Javari Indigenous Land (Photo: Bruno Kelly/Amazônia Real).
Indigenous people on a boat moored at Aldeia São Luis of the Kanamari people, located in the region of the middle Javari river, in the Vale do Javari Indigenous Land (Photo: Bruno Kelly/Amazônia Real).
Indigenous children play with a ball in the São Luis village of the Kanamari people, located in the region of the middle Javari river, in the Vale do Javari Indigenous Land (Photo: Bruno Kelly/Amazônia Real).
Young indigenous people during a moment of relaxation in the São Luis village of the Kanamari people, located in the region of the middle Javari river (Photo: Bruno Kelly/Amazônia Real).
Chief Mauro family during a meal at their home in Aldeia São Luis of the Kanamari people, located in the region of the middle Javari river, in the Vale do Javari Indigenous Land (Photo: Bruno Kelly/Amazônia Real).
An Indigenous member of the Kanamari Territorial Surveillance group rests in his hammock during dawn at the base, recently set up by them (Photo: Bruno Kelly/Amazônia Real).
Indigenous people from the Kanamari Territorial Surveillance group organize hammocks and mosquito nets to sleep in the base they recently set up (Photo: Bruno Kelly/Amazônia Real).
Indigenous people from the Kanamari Territorial Surveillance group are seen during dinner at the base, recently set up by them (Photo: Bruno Kelly/Amazônia Real).

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