Brazil’s Federal Police have arrested the Indigenous chief of the Mangueirinha Indigenous area in southern Paraná state. They accused José Carlos Gabriel, the chief of the territory comprising eight villages from two ethnic groups, of being part of a criminal gang involved with illegal logging critically endangered trees.
Gabriel was detained along with three other people, including the deputy chief of the community, Cristian Ricardo Carneiro, during an operation carried out Aug. 21.
“Investigations indicate that the criminal group, made up of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, operated in a structured manner with defined roles, including leadership, operations, logistics and the resale of illegally extracted timber,” Brazil’s Federal Police wrote in a statement.
“The group’s systematic activities caused irreparable environmental damage and left deplorable traces of destruction in the country’s largest remaining strongholds of the Araucaria tree,” it added.
The 17,280-hectare (42,700-acre) Mangueirinha Indigenous Territory is home to 780 families and one of the last remaining reserves of the critically endangered Paraná pine (Araucaria angustifolia) tree.
The tree is culturally important for local people who have been working to preserve it in the area for years.
“The Kaingáng culture needs the pine tree. It is our main plant, and its disappearance brings serious consequences,” including a loss of culture, food and resilience for the Kaingáng people, Bruno Ferreira, a historian and member of the Kaingáng people, told Mongabay contributor Sônia Kaingáng.
Despite its importance, the territory has seen a spike in logging of the Paraná pine and forest disturbance.
According to the investigation, 255 deforestation sites were identified since Gabriel assumed the Indigenous territory’s leadership in 2021. They claim that he facilitated and profited from illegal deforestation.
“Investigations point to an exponential increase in the criminal logging of threatened tree species, especially Araucaria, starting in 2021, when the current chief took office,” Federal Public prosecutors wrote in a statement.
Gabriel, his defense attorney and other members of the Indigenous leadership have denied involvement.
“I will get out of here, and everything will be clarified in court. I have no involvement in this deforestation business or anything to do with timber,” Chief Gabriel said in an audio message delivered to the community, authorized by the court.
“The community is on the side of what is right, of what is just, and we know this imprisonment is arbitrary and unjust,” Laís Gabriel, a community leader and the daughter of chief José Carlos Gabriel, told local Rádio Araucária 95.1 FM.
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“The fact that people are poor or discriminated against doesn’t necessarily endow them with any special qualities of justice, nobility, charity or compassion.”
– Saul Alinsky
I totally find this statement to be valid, and the way I would interpret it in relation to this article is that maybe this indigenous leader is corrupt. This is one possibility for sure.
Nevertheless, due to my personal distrust in the police, I wouldn’t be surprised if this was not the case, and that the police is acting on behalf of the rich people’s interest in order to eliminate the power given to these indigenous people by the state or some of its branch. Btw this is a 2023 report on Violence against indigenous people in Brazil, and the police is mentioned a lot in it.
Anyways, thanks for the post. I will keep an eye out to see how this goes. If you have news on this, please share!
Of course ACAB and we don’t know what really happened, and the chief is to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, but Occam’s Razor would suggest that this is simply a case of corruption and greed.
The federal police in Brazil is a civilian investigative force. Enforcement is done by state military police forces.
It doesn’t attract quite as much fascists as the regular police, with which it has nothing to do. So, ACAB, but these are the closest I’ve seen to cops that actually do their job right.
The federal police in Brazil is a civilian investigative force.
I’m not sure what you mean, in the sense that the info wiki has presents a quite typical police body. For example, it says:
The Federal Police of Brazil (…) is a federal law enforcement agency of Brazil and one of the most well-known nationwide police forces of the Executive Power of Brazil.
and
It is subordinate to the Ministry of Justice and Public Security.
I suppose they are ‘better’ than the military police that Brazil has? If we think of uniforms, only firefighters can be ok.
Edit: Several stuff. I stop now
Maybe don’t base your conclusions entirely on the wiki article. It’s just an encyclopedic entry.
