“The Man in the Hole” filmed during a government surveillance mission. – © FUNAI
“The Man in the Hole” filmed during a government surveillance mission. – © FUNAI
“The Man in the Hole,” the last survivor of an ethnic group from the Brazilian Amazon, was found dead on August 23. After the decimation of his tribe in the 1970s, he had lived in total isolation for the past 26 years.
With his death, an entire people of the western Amazon disappeared. “No outsider knew this man’s name or even much about his people, and with his death the genocide of his people is over,” Survival director Fiona Watson said in a statement. Because it is indeed a matter of genocide: the targeted annihilation of an entire people by land-hungry and wealthy cattle herders. »
Known as the “hole man” for his habit of digging deep holes to hide in or capture prey, he resisted all contact with the outside world.
The territory of Tanaru where he lived is, according to Survival, “a small forest island – still protected for the moment – in a sea of huge cattle ranches, in one of the most violent regions of Brazil”. In the 1970s, illegal Brazilian ranchers looking for land distributed rat poison to the population; Twenty years later, miners massacred what was left of the tribe. “The Man in the Hole” survived as the only one.
Since Jair Bolsonaro came to power, the rights and lands of tribal peoples have been regularly threatened.
“If President Bolsonaro and his agribusiness allies have their way, this story will repeat itself over and over again until all of the country’s indigenous peoples are wiped out,” said Fiona Watson. The presidential elections scheduled for October 2 in Brazil could change the situation. Jair Bolsonaro meets ex-President Lula there.
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World
Hardly discovered, a people in the Amazon is threatened with extinction
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Aug 30, 2022 at 4:20 p.m.
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