Escorted by Federal Police and National Force, IBAMA Team in Pará is Shot at

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A team from the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources – IBAMA, along with federal police officers and the National Force, was the target of gunfire on Friday afternoon, August 30th, near an indigenous area in Pará.

According to the Federal Police, the purpose was to intimidate the operations: “This will not intimidate us, we will proceed with the usual tasks”, said the Federal Police delegate Luiz Carlos Porto. No one was injured.

The team, made up of four IBAMA inspectors, four National Force agents and eight federal police officers, were carrying out an operation to inspect environmental degradation areas when an illegal mining operation was spotted near the Ituna/Itatá Indigenous Land.

In the camp, a large bulldozer was found, as well as machines and bombs used in illegal mining operations.

The smaller equipment was destroyed on site. The bulldozer was destroyed and can only be removed from the site with the help of the 51st Jungle Infantry Battalion.

By the end of the operation, in the late afternoon, the team was taken by surprise by gunfire from the forest and federal police officers retaliated.

“The team fired roughly in the direction of where the gunshots were coming from, they counted eight shots, but there is no way to be sure, and then it stopped. So we left. We believe it was the people who were working in the area and had fled into the woods”, says delegate Porto.

The police chief, who works specifically in the agricultural and environmental conflicts service in Brasília, explains that when the team arrived, there were no more people working in the camp, as they rely on a messaging system that warns them of the inspectors’ arrival.

“If they had more time, they would have even buried the bombs, tractors, but they need more than a day for that. As the team travels in vehicles and takes a ferry, they have a warning communication system on the roads and are quickly tipped off.”

“They hide in the woods and stay there, the equipment is left behind,” the delegate explained. No one has been arrested.