SEPTEMBER 7 2019 LISTENER 27
pistoleiros (gunmen).
When R’s sons prepare to check the
furthest castanha grove, three hours’ walk
away, they shoulder guns, and not just for
hunting. We get up at dawn, all set to join
them, but at the last minute they change
their minds. It’s too dangerous for the
gringos. There are reports of pistoleiros in
the vicinity. We’re not inclined to argue.
Reports have been coming through of
a cacique, or indigenous leader, stabbed
on a reserva in the nearby state of Amapá.
Heavily armed gold miners are reported to
have invaded the village carrying machine
guns. Bolsonaro’s initial response: there was
no proof that the cacique had died.
At the offices of the federal prosecutors
in Manaus, capital of Amazonia, we’d
already been warned about these sorts of
dangers. It’s almost easier to get through LA
airport security than to get into the building
- private armed guards in bulletproof vests
watch as we put ourselves and our bags
through metal scanners and our passports
are copied and mugshots taken.
Rafael de Silva Roxa is 33, but doesn’t
look a day over 24. One of the youngest
prosecutors in Amazonia, he has among
his briefs the policing of land-grabbing
criminals making inroads into traditional
and indigenous reserves. It’s a job made
harder by the drugs, money laundering
and political corruption, which, he says,
are woven through this complex paradigm.The land grabbers are active in an area of
forest they call the “arc of deforestation” that
stretches east to west across the southern
Amazon. It’s something akin to a gold-rush-
style land grab in which the grileiros use
cattle as boundary pegs to stake out a claim
on the forest.
The business model runs a little like this:
move into a remote area and intimidate
anyone who lives there, falsify documents,
set fire to the forest to clear the land, remove
the debris with chains and bulldozers,
then sow grass seed and run a few cattle to
validate the land claim. The pay-off comes
a few years down the track when they sell
their “farm” to cattle ranchers. It’s property
speculation, Amazon style.IDEOLOGICAL BOUNDARIES
It all becomes clearer as we take a flight
southwest from Manaus to Rio Branco.Under threat: a river
flows through the
Amazon; below, from
left, the toucan, squirrel
monkey and jaguar are
vulnerable due to loss of
habitat from wildfires.We get up at dawn,
all set to join them,but it’s too dangerous
for the gringos.