‘Never seen it so bad’: violence and impunity in Brazil’s Amazon

Former deputy editor of National Geographic Brazil says a "humanitarian catastrophe" is taking place in Brazil's Amazon

One of the perpetrators of arguably Brazil's most internationally high-profile murders in recent years is currently walking around free. In 2013, amid much media coverage, Lindonjonson Silva Rocha was sentenced to 42 years prison for killing two nut collectors-turned-environmental activists in southern Pari, but then in November last year he escaped.

One man who knew both victims, "Zi(C) Cliudio" Ribeiro da Silva and his wife Maria do Espirito Santo, is Felipe Milanez, a political ecologist at the Federal University of Recincavo of Bahia, activist, film-maker, former deputy editor of National Geographic Brazil, and the editor of the recently-published book, Memorias Sertanistas: Cem Anos de Indigenismo no Brasil. Here I interview Milanez, via email, about Zi(C) Cliudio and the Brazilian Amazon: