The Amazon tribe were photographed for the first time earlier this year but are now missing after an attack by drug traffickers Photo: Gleison Miranda/FUNAI
A remote Amazonian tribe, which made global headlines after being photographed for the first time, may have been massacred by drugs traffickers in recent weeks, authorities fear.
Brazil’s national Indian foundation, Funai, said that the isolated area housing the group had been “invaded and looted” in late July by “Peruvian drug traffickers”.
Orange-painted residents of the region in the state of Acre, about 20 miles from the Brazil-Peru border, were pictured there in 2008, firing arrows at an overflying plane.
In January this year, Brazil allowed the release of more pictures of people from the area, who were also dyed orange and were carrying bows, arrows and spears.
It is now feared that they may have been chased out of their homes or even killed by the traffickers, who are thought to have been armed.
A rucksack belonging to a suspected cocaine smuggler, containing 45 pounds of the drug and a broken arrow, was discovered in the area by police.
Officers claimed to reporters that groups of men armed with submachine guns and rifles were hiding in the forests near the base.
“We are more worried than ever,” Carlos Travassos, of Funai’s isolated Indians division, told reporters. “The arrows are like an identity card for the isolated natives. We think the Peruvians forced the tribesmen to flee.
“This situation could be one of the biggest blows to our work protecting isolated groups in the last decades. A catastrophe for our society. A genocide!”
Native tribesmen Mario Meira, the president of Funai, was on Tuesday night due to arrive at the outpost accompanied by federal police agents and a justice ministry official, the group said.
A suspected Portuguese drug trafficker previously extradited to Peru, Joaquim Fadista, who is alleged to have returned to the area to collect the rucksack, has been arrested.
Stephen Corry, the director of tribal rights group Survival International, said in a statement that “all possible measures” should be taken to ensure the safety of indigenous populations.
“This is extremely distressing news,” said Mr Corry. FUNAI says there are 67 tribes in Brazil that do not have sustained contact with the outside world.
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