Amazon

By Gabriel Elizondo in Americas on January 11th, 2012

In the northwest Brazilian Amazon town of Brasileia, population 20,238, there are almost 1,200 Haitians.

They often mill around during the day, clustered in groups in the shade trying to keep cool from the steamy heat, waiting for weeks for their work documents to be processed so they can get a job in another part of Brazil.

But on Tuesday it was the two other guys sitting alone who caught my attention. They could have been Bolivian perhaps, or even Brazilian. But I knew they weren’t.

“We are from Bangladesh,” AHM Sultan Ahmed, 36, tells me with a smile when I approach and ask to talk with them.

His friend, Abdul Awal, and my photojournalist, Maria Elena Romero, and I, all sit together on the grass and begin to chat.

By Gabriel Elizondo in Americas on August 8th, 2011
Photo by GALLO/GETTY

According to workers at the Brazilian government-run national Indian foundation, FUNAI, late last week a group of men from a paramilitary faction from Peru, armed with rifles and machine guns, entered Brazilian territory and encircled a remote jungle guard post used by FUNAI researchers to study and protect isolated indigenous tribes near the border with Peru.

The incident happened at a FUNAI post known as Xinane, a very remote monitoring location in Brazil's Acre state that serves as a small, five-person research base for the study and protection of isolated indigenous tribes in the region.

FUNAI officials say the armed men were most certainly trying to kill Indians in the area to make way for illegal logging, or new cocaine trafficking routes through the forest from Peru.

By Gabriel Elizondo in Americas on June 22nd, 2011
Photo of a newly discovered hut of the korubo indigenous tribe. Photo: Peetsa/Arquivo CGIIRC-Funai

As far as I am aware, the discovery was first reported June 16 by A Critica newspaper in Manaus, and confirmed this week by the Brazilian government’s national Indian foundation, known as Funai.

The new tribe was discovered in the remote eastern part of the Brazilian Amazon about 1,130 kilometers east of Manaus.

File 35266

Two thatched roof huts thought to belong to the newly discovered tribe. Given that there are crops around the huts, they are thought to be healthy. Photo: Peetsa/Arquivo CGIIRC-Funai  

By Gabriel Elizondo in Americas on June 16th, 2011
EPA

 

The full page spread in Rio daily O Globo on Wednesday was headlined with the screamer: “More Blood in the Forest.”

It was in relation to the latest revelation that another Amazon activist was killed this week, brining the number to six killed in a little over a month.

The latest murder made big news not only inside Brazil, but also sparked a new round of coverage of the Amazon kilings in the global press like here, here, and here.

But what exactly is going on?

By Gabriel Elizondo in Americas on May 26th, 2011
Photo: Jose Claudio Ribeiro's hands. Maria Elena Romero/Al Jazeera.

The family home of Jose Claudio Ribeiro da Silva is a simple, modest 3 bedroom brick building on a dusty side road in Maraba Brazil.

It is fitting for a humble man who told anybody who asked that he preferred to be called simply ‘Ze.’ If you wanted to be formal, ‘Ze Claudio,’ would due.

The house has a small kitchen and a cozy and peaceful backyard with green shrubs providing shade from the sauna-like heat common in this region of Brazil.

Ribeiro did not live here much. He preferred his even simpler home in the Amazon sustainable reserve he ran with his wife, Maria. It is about 40 kilometers from here.

But it’s at his family house, here in Maraba on Wednesday, where I first met Ze and Maria in the cramped living room.

By Gabriel Elizondo in Americas on October 28th, 2010
A campaign banner of ruling Workers' Party candidate Dilma Rousseff featuring the outgoing president, Lula da Silva [Reuters]

Brazil is a country on the rise: A thriving economy. A wealth of natural resources. A new, robust middle class. Declining poverty rates. And a future that includes hosting the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics. This is Brazil of 2010, going into 2011. It’s no wonder why so many people have suddenly found South America’s largest country as the hot, new global fixation.

But most of what is said or written about "the future of Brazil" in the international arena originates from the perspective of the political and economic elite - the World Economic Forum/Economist magazine crowd.

But what do everyday Brazilians think is the future of their country?

By Gabriel Elizondo in Americas on January 8th, 2010
 
It was mentioned to me recently a story about people allegedly being forcefully kicked out of their homes in the interior of Brazil to make way for hydroelectric dam construction. While I have done stories like this in the past, the particular location was in an area I do not know well, but I felt it needed further examination.
 
"I will call Glenn and check on it,” I responded reflexively. “He will know what the deal is."
 
So on Wednesday afternoon I scribbled on a notepad on my desk, "CALL GLENN."
 
"Glenn” is Glenn Switkes, the Latin America director for International Rivers, a Northern California-based NGO that focus on protecting the world’s rivers.
 
By Gabriel Elizondo in Americas on December 18th, 2009

JoseMarcosAguiar.jpg

At its heart, the story of the Brazilian Amazon is about the 21 million people who in some way or another call it home. Every day from December 7 through 18 - coinciding with the Copenhagen climate change summit – I am introducing you to a new person who lives in the Brazilian Amazon and whom I came across during my most recent reporting trip to the area. This is the last of the 12 installments of ‘Faces of the Amazon.’ To read the introductory blog post about this project, click here.

By Gabriel Elizondo in Americas on December 17th, 2009
Mauro.jpg 
 
At its heart, the story of the Brazilian Amazon is about the 21 million people who in some way or another call it home. Everyday from December 7 through 18 - coinciding with the Copenhagen climate change summit – I am introducing you to a new person who lives in the Brazilian Amazon and whom I came across during my most recent reporting trip to the area. This is the eleventh of twelve installments of ‘Faces of the Amazon.’ To read the introductory blog post about this project, click here.
 
Name: Mauro Cristo
 
Age: 36
 
By Gabriel Elizondo in Americas on December 16th, 2009
Photo from Elizondo

At its heart, the story of the Brazilian Amazon is about the 21 million people who in some way or another call it home. Everyday from December 7 through 18 - coinciding with the Copenhagen climate change summit – I am introducing you to a new person who lives in the Brazilian Amazon and whom I came across during my most recent reporting trip to the area. This is the tenth of twelve installments of ‘Faces of the Amazon.’ To read the introductory blog post about this project, click here.

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