Ombudsman demands security measures for indigenous people and public agents

The Federal Public Defender’s Office (DPU) asked the Justice to adopt measures to protect the life and physical integrity of the indigenous peoples of the Javari Valley, in the state of Amazonas, and public agents operating in the region. According to the DPU, the request must be met as an urgent guardianship, to prevent further murders, threats and violence in the locality.

The DPU also charged inspection –and all the necessary infrastructure– along the entire length of the Ituí and Itacoaí rivers, through integrated operations between Ibama, Funai, the National Force and the Armed Forces.

“It is essential that the National Public Security Force, the Navy, the Army, Ibama and other institutions that have police power and protection potential act together with Funai to prevent other murders and nefarious crimes”, highlighted the defenders.

The request was motivated after an open letter released by the Association of the Kanamari of the Javari Valley (Akavaja), on November 17, which described new and serious threats. According to the report, a group of illegal fishermen arrived at the scene and threatened one of the Kanamari leaders with a gun pointed at her chest.

The aggressors said that the woman is on the target list of the criminals and that “the deaths in the Javari Valley will not end until the main leaders of the place are murdered”.

The attack would have happened in the same region where the indigenist Bruno Pereira and the British journalist Dom Phillips were killed in June this year. According to the Federal Police, those investigated for the double homicide would also be linked to illegal fishing activity in the vicinity of the indigenous land.