How we can undo injustice and help indigenous communities

He was in his mid-20s, a young, dedicated defender of the trees and the ecology of his native Amazon rain forests and guardian of his community. Paulo Paulino Guajajara is the latest of many Indigenous People shot and killed in a cruel and treacherous murder by illegal loggers. His companion, Laércio Souza Silva, was seriously wounded but survived. It happened in the Arariboia reservation in Maranhao State, Brazil.

The members of the indigenous Guajajara community of the Amazon have organized themselves as forest guardians to stop the encroachments of loggers and agri-corporations on their ancestral lands and rain forests. The corporate elite covet the land for growing monocrops like soya, cattle-raising and mining, and try to drive away the Indigenous People. The people in these remote regions are also victims of coronavirus and many have died, infected no doubt by the invaders and exploiters of the forests.