Terror in the Amazon

Click to expand Image Survivors and relatives of those killed during the August 2020 operation remember the victims during a seminar at the Federal University of Amazonas in 2023. © 2023 Coletivo pelos Povos do Abacaxi A nightmare for Indigenous people and other communities on the Abacaxis riverbanks in the Brazilian Amazon began on August 3, 2020. That day, three private boats arrived in the town of Nova Olinda do Norte carrying ten undercover military police officers from the state of Amazonas; ten days earlier, someone had shot at a boat illegally fishing in the area. A senior state official, who was aboard, allegedly suffered a minor injury. Witnesses said he vowed to return in force. Things did not go as planned. A shootout erupted near one of the riverside communities, and two officers were killed. According to local residents, those who opened fire did not know the men on the boats were police officers. Amazonas state authorities offered a different account, claiming that a drug trafficking group had ambushed the police. In response, the state deployed 50 military police officers. Residents reported that, over the following weeks, officers moved from community to community,