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Brazil’s plans for the Amazon have united these longtime tribal enemies

In this 2017 photo, Brazilian environmental police conduct an interdiction on an illegal gold-mining operation on Kayapó indigenous land in the Amazon rainforest. Under the current presidency of Jair Bolsonaro, industrial incursions into the Amazon are expected to increase, leading the Kayapó to make peace with traditional enemies and present a united front against further resource development. Photo credit: Felipe Werneck/Ibama
In this 2017 photo, Brazilian environmental police conduct an interdiction on an illegal gold-mining operation on Kayapó indigenous land in the Amazon rainforest. Under the current presidency of Jair Bolsonaro, industrial incursions into the Amazon are expected to increase, leading the Kayapó to make peace with traditional enemies and present a united front against further resource development. Photo credit: Felipe Werneck/Ibama

Generations of enmity are now in the past as indigenous groups in the Xingu river basin of Brazil’s southern Para state are patching things up to fight a common enemy.

Tribal historians tell of bloody vendettas between the Panara and Kayapo peoples that in some cases date back almost 100 years and that saw the destruction of entire villages.

Enter Jair Bolsonaro, the president of Brazil, and the reason why these indigenous antagonists are leaving behind decades of blood feuds and inter-tribal warfare.

At a recent meeting, former enemies embraced and celebrated a new era of peace and harmony — and collaborated on strategies for combating the promised onslaught of miners, farmers, loggers, ranchers and others emboldened by the Brazilian government’s stated intention of developing their region — and the Amazon River basin in general — at an accelerated pace.

Notably absent, and troubling to some tribal leaders, were those indigenous communities who had already sold access to their resources to outsiders.

Source: BBC News

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