2nd note from the APINA on the invasion of the Wajãpi indigenous land

29/Jul/2019

We, the members of the Wajãpi – Apina Village Council wish to disclose the information we have today, July 29, 2019, regarding the invasion occurred in the Wajãpi Indigenous Land.

Last Sunday, July 28, 2019, police teams arrived at Mariry Village in the early afternoon and headed to the Yvytotõ village, accompanied by our warriors. When they arrived, there was no one there, just the footprints of the invaders. The police marked the points on their GPS and took pictures.

Our warriors brought the police team to a place where the invaders had hidden themselves on July 26, but they found no one there either. After that, the police claimed that they could not look for the invaders inside the forest by following the vestiges we showed them, then they returned to the Mariry village and from there to the Aramirã post, where they arrived around 9:30 p.m.

At the Aramirã Indigenous Post, the police met with representatives of Funai, of the Apina, of the villages in the Aramirã region and of the Pedra Branca City Hall, in Amapá. They said that the region of the Yvytotõ village is difficult to reach and that they had no means to remain and continue the search there due to the difficulties one has of moving and feeding oneself in the forest.

During the meeting, the superintendent of the police promised he would study the region around the Yvytotõ village using satellite images to check for evidence of irregular gold mining within the Wajãpi Indigenous Land. If the images show any vestiges, they will fly over to check. After this meeting, the police teams returned to Macapá, Amapá’s capital.

We, the Wajãpi Indigenous People, remain very concerned about the irregular prospectors who have invaded the northern region of our Indigenous Land. In our villages of this region, our families are very afraid of going out to their fields or hunting in the woods. Some communities have left their villages to join families from other villages so as to feel a bit safer.

That’s why our warriors from all over the Wajãpi Indigenous Land are organizing themselves to help the Mariry village warriors who continue to search for the hidden invaders, and we are asking Funai’s support to locate them.

As soon as we have any new information, we will post more of these Notes.

Aramirã Post – Wajãpi Indigenous Land, July 29, 2019.

APINA’s statement about the invasion of Wajãpi Indigenous Land

28/Jul/2019

We, the Council of Wajãpi Villages – APINA, want to release the information so far available about the invasion of Wajãpi Indigenous Land.

On Monday, July 22nd, by the end of the evening, the Indigenous chief called Emyra Wajãpi was violently killed in the region of his village called Waseity, near the Mariry village. No one from Wajãpi Indigenous People testified his death. His death was noticed and disseminated to all Wajãpi communities just in the following morning, on Tuesday, July 23rd. In the next few days, kinfolk looked into the local. They found tracks and clues which indicate that the death was caused by non-Indigenous people, outsiders from the Wajãpi Indigenous Land.

On Friday, July 26th, the Wajãpi from Yvytotõ village, located at the same region where the death happened, met a group of armed non-Indigenous people near their village. Then, they warned the other Wajãpi communities by radio. During that same night, the invaders came to Yvytotõ village and got into the house, threatening the residents. The afraid Yvytotõ villagers ran away to the Mariry village located nearby the very next day.

On Friday night, we reported it to the federal government, through the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI), and to the Public Federal Ministry of Brazil about the invasion. At that occasion, we requested the presence of the Federal Police on the site. Early on the morning of Saturday, July 27th, residents of Karapijuty village sighted another invader near their village.

Saturday, we spread the news to our allies, in an attempt to hurry up the coming of the Federal Police. Also, a group of Wajãpi warriors from other regions of the Indigenous Land went to the area of Mariry village to support its residents until the Federal Police arrives. In the evening of Saturday, representatives of FUNAI arrived in the Wajãpi Indigenous Land. They went to the Jakare village to interview relatives of the deceased chief who moved there. Soon after, the representatives of FUNAI came back to Macapá (capital of Amapá, Brazil) to contact the Federal Police. Meanwhile, the Wajãpi warriors stayed guarding nearby the place where the invaders were, and the villages located on the exit route from the Wajãpi Land. In that same night, some people heard gunshots in the region of the Jakare village, near the 210-Highway, where there were no Wajãpi.

On July 28th, in the morning, a group of federal policemen and the BOPE Special Police Forces arrived at the Wajãpi Indigenous Land (TIW) and went to the place to arrest the invaders. And this is all that we know so far. Once we have more information, we will release a new document.

Posto Aramirã – Wajãpi Indigenous Land, July 28, 2019.