Report: Amazon tribe may have fallen victim to drug traffickers
Aerial images of the uncontacted tribe in Brazil's Amazon rain forest were released in February.
August 9th, 2011
07:32 AM ET

Report: Amazon tribe may have fallen victim to drug traffickers

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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Filed under: Brazil • World
soundoff (765 Responses)
  1. areyoukidding

    I found an uncontacted tribe in the middle of Alaska! I took pictures but I lost my memory card! I later came back there and realized that they vanish some how, probably the arctic drug dealers killed all of them .. Is so sad.

    August 10, 2011 at 12:33 pm | Report abuse |
  2. s kel

    i blame all the drug heads, in this and other countries for this. the cartels and drugs gangs need to be wiped out, not prosecuted.

    August 10, 2011 at 12:59 pm | Report abuse |
  3. hey

    I'm brazilian, sorry I know better portuguese than you, Indigena means what "native" means in english, nativo means a person who lives in a remote island! Is not slang. The thing is native in english means indianos em portuguese. They think indians are people from India only.

    August 10, 2011 at 3:15 pm | Report abuse |
  4. hey

    Btw, whoever were flying over the Amazon were not even supposed to be there! Remember the american plane that turned off its radar and crashed into a brzln plane over amazon? What they were doing there??? And what they are doind now?
    Leave Amazon alone!

    August 10, 2011 at 4:09 pm | Report abuse |
    • Mel

      Excuse me Hey, but where does it say that Americans were flying over the Amazon. It only references a group called Survival International. International as in multi-national, not only American. You be fluent in Portuguese, but apparently you can't read in English.

      August 10, 2011 at 4:56 pm | Report abuse |
  5. Henrique56

    CONSIDERING THAT CNN SAID THAT BRAZIL IS IN AFRICA, I CAN´T UNDERSTAND HOW THIS TRIBE COULD BE IN BRAZIL.

    August 10, 2011 at 4:25 pm | Report abuse |
    • Military Wife

      Where does it say that?

      August 31, 2011 at 3:29 pm | Report abuse |
  6. SayNoToDrugs

    Can we just have a proper 'on-topic' discssion. I scrolled over to page 16 hoping that at some earlier point at least there was some talk about policies, trafficking stats etc. No such luck – found the same God/Cristianity topics (which would be just fine for some other story, but not this one)

    August 10, 2011 at 5:11 pm | Report abuse |
  7. hey

    Hi Mel,Apparently CNN didn't show in America the specific incident with the plane that I mentioned before. I wonder why... Well, Nevermind. Keep Living in your bubble.

    August 10, 2011 at 5:39 pm | Report abuse |
  8. hey

    USA

    Survival International USA
    2325 3rd Street, Suite 413
    San Francisco
    CA 94107
    USA
    Hi Mel,
    Check out their website and you might like the link DONATE.

    August 10, 2011 at 5:50 pm | Report abuse |
  9. Paul

    All you people doing illegal drugs contributed to this, you should feel ashamed. The US did cause this problem, we are the largest consumer of illicit drugs on the planet...

    August 11, 2011 at 4:56 pm | Report abuse |
  10. Tobin

    So this tribe has been out here for god knows how long minding their own business just getting along. Someone takes pictures of them and a few months later, they are nowhere to be found. Now perhaps they decided since they had been spotted it was time to relocate as a means of self preservation. Or perhaps drug cartel made them leave or killed them all. If option b is the case perhaps this will teach people to mind their own business and let that tribe do its thing

    August 17, 2011 at 3:09 am | Report abuse |
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