Vale do Javari: Gov’t presence ensured peace for years
The Vale do Javari indigenous territory came into the spotlight after Bruno Pereira, a member of the staff of national indigenous agency Funai, and Dom Phillips, a British journalist and correspondent for The Guardian, were brutally murdered back in June last year. Among anthropologists and members of indigenous movements, however, the region was already known for being both home to the world’s largest concentration of isolated groups and an arena for power struggles.The area is located in the municipalities of Atalaia do Norte and Guajará, in western Amazonas state, in North Brazil. The indigenous people who live there have not always had to struggle with violence, and what kept the problem at bay was the work of public agencies, says Eliesio Marubo, an attorney with Univaja, Vale do Ja...