HRD Attack
Gamela indigenous
Sources
Thirteen Brazilian indigenous people have been hospitalized after a brutally violent attack by men armed with machetes in the Amazon. One man appears to have had his arms severed. The attack was in retaliation for the Gamela Indians’ campaign to recover a small part of their ancestral territory allegedly invaded and destroyed by ranchers and loggers, forcing the Gamela to live squeezed on a tiny patch of land in Maranhão. Civil society reports powerful agribusiness interests – reportedly including the Sarney landowning family – have been in conflict with the tribe for some time. The family includes a former president of Brazil and a former governor of Maranhão state. Names are unavailable because police investigation is ongoing.