While it is home to countless animal and plant species and is considered globally as the lungs of the world, the Amazon Rainforest also draws attention for characteristics that are at the opposite end of this spectrum: violence, death, and destruction. Such misfortunes came on 5 June, 2022, to the Brazilian indigenist Bruno Araújo Pereira and the English journalist Dom Phillips, two figures who made it their life’s goals to fight against human barbarism in the region.
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The place where the crime took place is very close to the triple border Brazil – Peru – Colombia, in the west of Amazonas state, on the Brazilian side of the border. The west of the Brazilian Amazon is probably the most inaccessible region in the country. Most of the time, the only means of transportation is by water. There is no quality infrastructure, and the presence of the State is minimal and punctual. The inhospitable terrain is fertile ground for organized
crime, which sees the region as an outflow route for cocaine from other South American countries and as a region rich in natural resources, whether they are mineral, vegetal or animal, without proper accountability or respect for the laws.
THE MAIN CRIMINAL ACTORS IN THE REGION
As is well known, the major drug trafficking groups in the country, the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) and the Comando Vermelho (CV), in spite of commercializing significant quantities of cocaine on a global level, do not produce it nationally. It is imported from other countries in South and Central America before it reaches its final destination, be it the internal or the external market. It usually enters the country through the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, through Ponta Porã and its surroundings, or through the Amazon state via rivers coming from the vicinity of the triple border. But drug trafficking is not the only criminal activity that these groups carry out. The Amazon region has a very different profile from the rest of the country, it is an almost completely natural area. For this reason, the activities that are exploited are specific to the location: illegal mining, fishing and hunting in protected areas, logging, and exploitation of slave labor.
In order to gain popularity, criminals also support the local population in certain illegal endeavors for subsistence. An example of this is pirarucu fishing, which may even have been the main reason for the murders of Bruno and Dom. According to the Federal Police, they were killed after Bruno, an employee of the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI), reprimanded one of his murderers for catching the fish, which is the most valuable and with restricted fishing in the region.
HOW DOES THE PUBLIC POWER DEAL WITH THE SITUATION?
Both FUNAI and the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA) are very active in the region. While the former has the objective of identifying, demarcating, monitoring and inspecting indigenous lands in the country, as well as protecting the indigenous people and their land from external threats; the latter is a kind of environmental police, also working with environmental licensing, environmental quality control, authorization for the use of natural resources, and environmental monitoring and control. The state of Amazonas, the largest in Brazil, has 98% of its area under natural cover, and 54% of the whole state are only Conservation Units (UC) or Indigenous Lands (TI), which explains the intensity of operations of these federal autarchies in the state. There are many intersections in the institutional objectives of FUNAI, IBAMA, and the Federal Police. Often the criminal agents that are sought by one organization are also wanted by others, and this leads these institutions to carry out operations together. It is not uncommon for FUNAI or IBAMA operations to be accompanied by other police forces or armed forces, like the Military Police or the Army, in order to receive logistical and operational support for their interventions.
THE OMNIPRESENT DANGER IN THE NORTHERN REGION
Besides being a region of difficult access, it is also very extensive. The borderland strip in the northern region alone measures 17.000 kilometers and is almost entirely made up of closed forest, monitored with many adversities by the Army. In view of all these aspects, it is easy to see why crime proliferates easily in the region. Even the capital of Amazonas, Manaus, which is also the largest city in the North region, does not escape the sphere of influence of criminal groups and, because of this, has a high violent death rate, there were 1.185 incidents in 2021, or 52,5 per 100.000 inhabitants, while the country’s average is 22,3.
