Suspected Peruvian drug traffickers have destroyed a guard post protecting a recently discovered indigenous tribe in Brazil's Amazon rain forest, the aid group Survival International reports.
Aerial film and still images of the tribe were first shown to the world in February. The Brazilian government's National Indian Foundation established the guard station near the tribe's territory along Brazil's border with Peru to protect the Indians from outsiders.
Survival International said Monday that Brazilian authorities can now find no sign of the tribe.
"We think the Peruvians made the Indians flee. ... We are more worried than ever. This situation could be one of the biggest blows we have ever seen in the protection of uncontacted Indians in recent decades. It’s a catastrophe," Carlos Travassos, the head of Brazil's isolated Indians department, said in a Survival International statement.
Survival International reports the tribe's lands are near the Envira River, which Peruvian cocaine smugglers reportedly use as a route into Brazil.
Brazilian authorities report groups of men armed with machine guns and rifles are in the nearby forest, according to the aid group.
Authorities had recovered a drug trafficker's rucksack with a broken Indian arrow in it, Survival International reported.
"This is extremely distressing news. There is no knowing how many tribal peoples the drug trade has wiped out in the past, but all possible measures should be taken to stop it happening again. The world’s attention should be on these uncontacted Indians, just as it was at the beginning of this year when they were first captured on film," Survival International Director Stephen Corry said in a statement.
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This is so typical of the world we live in today. Peolple value monetary gain more than anything. We are destroying ourselves and the world we live in for the love of money. And, by the comments I have seen here, noone really cares. They either think its funny or use a tragedy to promote their own selfish agenda. What's happening to us?
Clearly those tribes people are not washed in the precious blood of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
/endsarcasm
These druggies must be stopped.
Agreed
Mans inhumanity to man continues
where is the Brazilian army?? Really? Do you not know how the Brazilian military treats people??
WHY WOULD YOU ADVERTISE THAT AN UN-CONTACTED TRIBE EXISTED TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC? What purpose did that serve? Was someone trying to make a buck?
because it's an interesting story. The fact that we know that a tribe which has never been contacted was potentially wiped out has nothing to do with the fact that people knew about it, it has to do with drug runners wiping out a village of people that were absolutely no threat to them whatsoever, and people who represent out most basic history.
Id go get high in the forest with some Indians...
Ha. They prolly have some real good chronic that makes them invisible...wait a minute...wait, a, minute....
CNN is R@CIST! Indians? Really? India isn't in South America you morons at CNN. You're no better than FOXNEWS.
They really are indians. thats also the name they are called in spanish too indios. Stop turning this into a race thing. the indians probably dont even know of another race.
Relax Squanto.
There are actually Indians all over – NOT just in India. Native American Indians are also referenced this way. Check your facts.
Open711, are you kidding me? I hope this is a joke post. Indians refers to indigenous peoples of the Americas ... "Americas" being North America, Central America, and, you guessed it ... SOUTH America. It was Christopher Columbus' geographic mistake, not CNN's. Again, I hope this was a joke post. If not, you may want to take a history lesson or two.
Just cause Christopher Columbus, who didn't discover America, was an idiot doesn't mean NATIVE AMERICIANS are INDIANS. Holy COW you beef eaters in TEXAS are stoooooopid! The Lone Ranger and Tonto too!
Its a quotation. READ the article before you type something.
Stop buying the drugs. It will end.
good idea J.
Nice effort by reality is against it. Amazing the tribe lasted this long! On the other hand, what is so special about these indians from the other groups that have already been "outed"? Nothing.
What makes them special is that they have managed to hold on to their way of life this long. It makes them rare and special and unfortunately a target for the world of "We have to know EVERYTHING; and if we cant understand it, we must put it in a box & control it–for it's own good, of course" generation.
All of you who are calling this a hoax are LAZY and ignorant. Just google it. There are videos there and on youtube that prove this image and others valid. ACTUAL VIDEOS, not just photos. The 'hoax' part of the story was that the tribe was 'new', not that it existed. Idiots....
remember the ewoks!!!
Hey, at least Peru is doing something about it. Take Bolivia, where the government is building a highway from the a town known for growing coca (most of which is later used for the production of cocaine) to Brazil. In order to build the mega highway the government is cutting through a national park and indigenous territory (Isiboro Secure) and disrupting/displacing indigenous tribes in the area. . .
These people have lived un-detected up until February. I am sure they know how to handle themselves. They probably moved because they didn't like the "post" that was put up to "protect" them... Are you kidding me??? Protect them?? Try, draw more attention to them. Why couldn't we just let them be?
If you jackholes hadn't published pics of this tribe to begin with, they probably wouldn't have been wiped out. human intervention causes nothing but grief.
john unfortunately is correct. Its a awful shame but if troops were sent in to protect these people they would be in contact with these natives and that contact would eventually end there existence.