The attack took place in a street near the office of the Indigenous Awareness Group (GCI) and of the Indigenous Council of the Tapajós and Arapiuns rivers (CITA), in the downtown area of the city. Odair José is the coordinator of CITA and the chief of the Novo Lugar Village.
He was approached and assaulted by three men wearing hoods who were riding motorcycles and carried a gun and knives. The Indian chief had been receiving death threats and he had reported them to the Federal Police and to the Federal Prosecutor's Office.
The community headed by Odair in the Nova Olinda area, located on the banks of the Maró river, has been denouncing the invasion of its lands, the existence of false title deeds to them, and the illegal exploitation of timber in the region. According to Odair, the death threats are related to land disputes.
The situation of indigenous people in the region is aggravated by the fact that Funai has not been complying with requests to demarcate the land of the Borari community in Nova Olinda.
"The threats had been reported to the Federal Prosecutor's Office already. We reported them a month ago and I requested protection to the Federal Police for me and for the CITA main office.
"So far, I haven't seen any measures being taken for this purpose. The Attorney General said that there was nothing he could do, because he had not received any report from Funai confirming that we are indigenous people. And Funai took no measures to identify our lands so far," Odair said.
The assault was registered with the Civil Police and a corpus delicti examination was made in Odair.
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Cimi – Indianist Missionary Council