Raid on house of indigenous rights defender Alessandra Korap
On 30 November 2019, unknown individuals raided the home of indigenous woman human rights defender Alessandra Korap. Personal documents, phones and digital files were taken, while valuable objects were left behind. Local human rights defenders believe this was an act of intimidation in response to the visibility Alessandra Korap brought to illegal mining activities in the Munduruku indigenous territories.
Alessandra Korap is a Munduruku indigenous leader from Itaituba, Pará, in the Brazilian Amazon. She is a well recognised defender of women’s, indigenous and environmental rights. She has been using her position to denounce human rights abuses that result from infrastructural mega-projects in the protected areas of the Amazon region, such as the São Luiz do Tapajós Hydroelectric Project and the Ferrogrão railroad. Alessandra Korap is also the first woman to coordinate the Associação Indígena Pariri (Pariri Indigenous Association), formed by thirty-five families from ten indigenous groups in the Médio Tapajós region in Itaituba.
On 30 November 2019, unknown individuals raided the home of indigenous woman human rights defender Alessandra Korap. Personal documents, phones and digital files were taken, while valuable objects were left behind. Local human rights defenders believe this was an act of intimidation in response to the visibility Alessandra Korap brought to illegal mining activities in the Munduruku indigenous territories.
Alessandra Korap is a Munduruku indigenous leader from Itaituba, Pará, in the Brazilian Amazon. She is a well recognised defender of women’s, indigenous and environmental rights. She has been using her position to denounce human rights abuses that result from infrastructural mega-projects in the protected areas of the Amazon region, such as the São Luiz do Tapajós Hydroelectric Project and the Ferrogrão railroad. Alessandra Korap is also the first woman to coordinate the Associação Indígena Pariri (Pariri Indigenous Association), formed by thirty-five families from ten indigenous groups in the Médio Tapajós region in Itaituba.
On the evening of 30 November 2019, Alessandra Korap returned home with her family to find out that her house in Santarém had been broken into and raided by unknown individuals. Most of their belongings were destroyed, and personal documents, phones, a tablet, the television, and their camera’s hard drive were taken. The defender’s camera was left open on her bed, and the family’s cooking gas cylinder, an item that is commonly stolen in the region, remained intact. The following day, Alessandra Korap tried to report the break in at the local police station, but she was refused assistance at that moment. She was only allowed to report the incident after two days, accompanied by a lawyer.
On 20 November 2019, the woman human rights defender organised and led a group of fifty Munduruku indigenous people who went to the nation’s capital, Brasília, to protest against the increase in illegal mining activities and attacks on indigenous leaders in the region. At that event, Alessandra Korap spoke about the dangers presented by the current standstill in the demarcation of indigenous territories. This has been caused by the ongoing dismantling of national institutions responsible for protecting the rights of indigenous peoples. Her speech was met with audio and written threats on social media made by known individuals connected with the mining sector.
The Munduruku Indigenous Territory has been shown to be the 6th most deforested indigenous territory in 2018-2019. Families who traditionally survived from fishing in the rivers are left with barren waters contaminated by mercury. Despite the threats against her, Alessandra Korap has been denouncing the lack of effective actions from authorities to stop illegal mining and logging in the territory.
Front Line Defenders is deeply concerned for the life and safety of Alessandra Korap and her family members, given that Pará has one of the highest numbers of killings of environmental defenders. Front Line Defenders believes the attack to have been solely motivated by her peaceful human rights work denouncing illegal mining and logging in the Munduruku territory. Front Line Defenders reiterates its concern about the increase in attacks, killings and criminalisation of indigenous and environmental rights defenders in Brazil, as well as the dismantling of public policies aimed to guarantee their rights in the new government.
