Indian who denounced loggers is murdered in ambush in Mato Grosso
Copyright 2002 Diário de Cuiabá
December 21, 2001
Three months ago, Carlito Cinta-Larga denounced the illegal extraction of timber in the municipality of Aripuana (976 kilometres from Cuiaba). The day before yesterday he was murdered in an ambush as he arrived home. He was 28. The Federal Police have already opened an investigation into the crime. Tension is high in the city of Aripuana, where much of the economy is based on the illegal extraction of timber in indigenous reserves.
For more than 20 years, the Cinta-Larga Indians have suffered harrassment by loggers. According to anthropologist João Dal Poz, the Indians make verbal contracts with loggers which permits illegal extraction on their territory. The problem is that now there is just not enought timber left, setting loggers against the Indians and Indians against Indians.
After two decades of selling their environmental heritage, some Cinta-Larga have a standard of life higher than most of the city's population.