Miners kill Brazilian tribal leader in protected area of the Amazon

A Waiãpi man.
(Image credit: Apu Gomes/AFP/Getty Images)

A group of armed miners stormed a remote indigenous village in northern Brazil last week, killing a tribal leader, officials said.

The incident took place in the Yvytotõ village in the state of Amapá, home to the Waiãpi tribe. "This is the first violent invasion in 30 years since the demarcation of the indigenous reserves in Amapá," Sen. Rodolfe Rodrigues told the newspaper Diário do Amapá. Funai, Brazil's indigenous rights agency, said 10 to 15 miners took over the town, stabbing to death 68-year-old Emyra Waiãpi and dumping his body by a river.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.