"Nov. 1 marked the five-year anniversary of the killing of Indigenous forest guardian Paulo Paulino Guajajara and the attempted killing of fellow guardian Laércio Guajajara in an alleged ambush by loggers in the Arariboia Indigenous Territory in the Brazilian Amazon; the suspects haven’t been tried yet."
"“They’re free and I’m still here. They might be planning to execute me too. I’m very worried about that,” says Indigenous leader Laércio Guajajara, a survivor of an alleged ambush by illegal loggers that killed fellow forest guardian Paulo Paulino Guajajara in November 2019 in the Arariboia Indigenous Territory, in the Brazilian Amazon.
Laércio says he’s outraged about the delay to put on trial the two suspects charged over the incident that occurred half a decade ago, on Nov. 1, 2019. “I never believed that justice would help us in terms of territorial self-protection and the life of human beings,” he tells Mongabay in an audio message. “And today [it’s confirming] that there’s no justice for Indigenous peoples. It’s been five years and no justice has been made.”
Like Laércio, Paulo was a member of the “Guardians of the Forest,” a group of Indigenous Guajajara in Arariboia who risk their lives to protect their ancestral land against illegal logging, hunting and other environmental crimes. The group, formed a decade ago, also protects the Awá people, hunter-gatherers who live in voluntary isolation in the depths of Arariboia’s forests and are considered the most threatened Indigenous group on the planet."
Advertisement 
