Brazil launches biggest operation ever against illegal cattle farms in the Amazon

Three helicopters, a dozen vehicles and a heavily armed body of police and environmental guards carry out the cattle movement, which criminal gangs tried to block by setting fire to the route, destroying bridges and intimidating drivers.

The operation commander, the Ibama agent, Givanildo Lima, said this was a politically symbolic operation on the front line of combating environmental crime in the Amazonian state of Pará.

“The deforestation of Ituna-Itatá was planned and executed by a gang that had great political power. The success of this operation demonstrates our ability to combat crime in the Amazon, which is increasingly organized,” he stated.

A coalition of federal agencies was involved in the operation, including Ibama, the federal police, the traffic police, the indigenous affairs agency and the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation.

Invasion of the Ituna-Itatá Indigenous Territory,

A 2011 government study took a step towards formally demarcating the Ituna-Itatá Indigenous Territory, an area of ​​142 thousand hectares, which was home to an isolated community, Igarapé Ipiaçava. 

Once this process begins, the state prohibits non-indigenous people from entering the area. To challenge this situation, local land grabbers began to invade the area, burning the forest and filling the land with cows. 

During Jair Bolsonaro's government, the Ituna-Itatá Indigenous Territory was the most deforested indigenous area in the entire region. Amazon in 2019.

Ibama estimates that it will take weeks for the remaining 5 cows to be removed from indigenous land.

Brazil launches biggest ever operation against illegal cattle farms in Amazon https://t.co/LvXSfmSuha

— Guardian World (@guardianworld) September 5, 2023

Read also

Deforestation alerts in the Amazon fall 66% in August

The accumulated deforestation alerts during August 2023 in the Legal Amazon reached 563 km², the third lowest mark so far for the period in the Deter historical series, which began in 2015. The numbers are from the Institute for Space Research (Inpe) and were released this Tuesday afternoon (05) by the Ministry of the Environment.

* The text of this article was partially generated by artificial intelligence tools, state-of-the-art language models that assist in the preparation, review, translation and summarization of texts. Text entries were created by the Curto News and responses from AI tools were used to improve the final content.
It is important to highlight that AI tools are just tools, and the final responsibility for the published content lies with the Curto News. By using these tools responsibly and ethically, our objective is to expand communication possibilities and democratize access to quality information. 🤖