This archive report was first published on 29 July 2019.
On July 26, 2019, a group of heavily armed miners, known as garimpeiros, overran a village in the northern state of Amapa, controlled by the Waiapi tribe, just three days after the indigenous leader's body was found in a river.
The Waiapi's territory, rich in gold, manganese, iron, and copper, is deep inside the Amazon, which has faced growing pressure from miners, ranchers, and loggers under Bolsonaro's administration.
After reports of the violence emerged, members of the federal police and a military police special forces unit were dispatched to the village, arriving on July 28, 2019.
Amapa chief prosecutor Rodolfo Soares Ribeiro Lopes told Brazil's National Radio that they were working with several theories on the murder, including the possibility that it was carried out by garimpeiros, hunters, or even other indigenous people.
However, Bolsonaro told reporters on July 29, 2019, that "the information so far shows no strong evidence that this Indian was murdered."
He also called for the legalization of small-scale mining, or garimpo, and for indigenous people to be allowed to mine their own land, instead of being "jailed like a zoo animal."
Brazil's government demarcated the Waiapi's territory in the 1980s for the exclusive use of its 800,000 indigenous inhabitants, with access by outsiders strictly regulated.
Since taking office in January 2019, Bolsonaro has been accused of harming the Amazon and indigenous tribes to benefit his supporters in the logging, mining, and farming industries.
