• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Wednesday, March 29, 2023
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home Environment

Murder of Brazilian Tribal Leader Linked to Bolsonaro’s Amazon Agenda: UN Rights Chief

Staff Writer by Staff Writer
07/29/19
in Environment, Featured, World
The Amazon rainforest in Brazil after clearcutting.

The Amazon rainforest in Brazil after clearcutting. Photo: AFP

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

The U.N. rights chief on Monday condemned the “reprehensible” murder of a tribal chief in the Amazon, linking the killing to the pro-mining policies of far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.

The body of the head of the Waiapi tribe, which controls territory in the northern state of Amapa deep inside the Amazon, was found in a river last week.

Rich in gold, manganese, iron and copper, the Waiapi’s territory has faced growing pressure from miners, ranchers and loggers under far-right Bolsonaro.

The chief’s murder “is tragic and reprehensible in its own right,” the United High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, said in a statement.

“It is also a disturbing symptom of the growing problem of encroachment on indigenous land – especially forests – by miners, loggers and farmers in Brazil,” she added.

Bolsonaro on Saturday called for the “first world” to help exploit the “absurd quantity of minerals” in the rainforest.

Bachelet said the “proposed policy to open up more areas of the Amazon to mining could lead to incidents of violence, intimidation and killings of the type inflicted on the Waiapi people last week.”

Brazilian police are also investigating reports that a group of heavily armed miners, known as garimpeiros, overran a village in the same area of Amapa state days after the chief was killed.

Bachelet called on Brazil “to reconsider its policies towards indigenous peoples and their lands, so (the chief’s) murder does not herald a new wave of violence aimed at scaring people off their ancestral lands.”

The Waiapi’s territory is one of hundreds Brazil’s government demarcated in the 1980s for the exclusive use of its 800,000 indigenous inhabitants.

Since taking office in January, Bolsonaro has been accused of harming the Amazon and indigenous tribes in order to benefit his supporters in the logging, mining and farming industries.

In April, thousands of indigenous people converged on Brazil’s capital to defend hard-won land rights many fear could be eroded by the far-right President.

In a recent opinion article for The Globe Post, Claire Worldy, an environmental researcher at the University of Cambridge, noted that the deforestation of the Amazon that’s necessary to promote the logging, mining, and farming industries has serious implications for climate change.

“This sets the scene for potentially one of the biggest catastrophes of our troubled times,” she wrote. “Not only is Bolsonaro a threat to many of his own people; he endangers our global climate.”

Often called “the lungs of the world,” the millions of plants in the Amazon absorb carbon dioxide from the air for photosynthesis. Thus, any further reduction in plant life there would significantly contribute to the accelerated warming of the planet.

For this reason, Tyler Bellestrom argued this week in a New Republic op-ed that Brazil under Bolsonaro is a greater threat to the security of the United States (and the world as a whole) than China or Iran.


More on the Subject 

Trump Cements Alliance With Far-Right Brazilian President Bolsonaro

 

ShareTweet
Staff Writer

Staff Writer

AFP with The Globe Post

Related Posts

deforestation
Environment

Major Firms Not Doing Enough to Curb Deforestation: Report

by Staff Writer
February 15, 2023
Supporters of Brazilian former President Jair Bolsonaro clash with the police during a demonstration
World

Brazil Patrols Government Buildings Retaken From Rioting Bolsonaro Supporters

by Staff Writer
January 9, 2023
Dom Phillips
Media Freedom

British Journalist, Indigenous Expert Missing in Brazil Following Threats

by Staff Writer
June 6, 2022
Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro
Opinion

The Murder of Art in Brazil

by Luciano de Castro
November 5, 2021
razilian President Jair Bolsonaro delivers a speech
Featured

Bolsonarism, Necropolitics, and the Spores of Wickedness

by Luciano de Castro
October 26, 2021
Covid-19 in Brazil
Featured

No Pandemic End in Sight With Raging Outbreaks in India, Brazil

by Staff Writer
May 1, 2021
Next Post
Police fires tear gas at protestors in Hong Kong.

'Revolution of Our Times:' Hong Kong Protests Not Just About Extradition Bill Anymore

Women in front of a Georgian flag holds up a banner reading 'Russia is occupant'

Where Do Georgia’s Anti-Russian Protests Leave Breakaway Region Abkhazia?

Recommended

Damage from a series of powerful storms and at least one tornado is seen on March 25, 2023, in Rolling Fork, Mississippi

After Tornado Kills 25, Mississippi Faces More Extreme Weather

March 26, 2023
Transgender Army veteran Tanya Walker speaks to protesters in Times Square near a military recruitment centre

Tennessee Is A Drag on the First Amendment

March 26, 2023
participants of an artificial intelligence conference

How AI Could Upend the World Even More Than Electricity or the Internet

March 19, 2023
Chinese President Xi Jinping

China’s Path to Economic Dominance

March 15, 2023
Heavily armed police inspect the area near a Jehovah's Witness church where several people have been killed in a shooting in Hamburg, northern Germany

Eight Dead in Shooting at Jehovah’s Witness Hall in Germany

March 10, 2023
Myanmar Rohingya refugees look on in a refugee camp in Teknaf, in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar, on November 26, 2016

US Announces $26M in New Aid for Rohingya

March 8, 2023

Opinion

Transgender Army veteran Tanya Walker speaks to protesters in Times Square near a military recruitment centre

Tennessee Is A Drag on the First Amendment

March 26, 2023
Chinese President Xi Jinping

China’s Path to Economic Dominance

March 15, 2023
An earthquake survivor reacts as rescuers look for victims and other survivors in Hatay, a Turkish province where hundreds of buildings were destroyed by the earthquake

Heed the Call of Our Broken World

March 1, 2023
Top view of the US House of Representatives

‘Cringy Awards:’ Who Is the Most Embarrassing US House Representative?

February 13, 2023
Protesters rally against the fatal police assault of Tyre Nichols, outside of the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center in Detroit, Michigan, on January 27, 2023

How Do Violent ‘Monsters’ Take Root?

February 3, 2023
George Santos from the 3rd Congressional district of New York

George Santos for Speaker!

January 16, 2023
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post