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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Environment
Oliver Laughland and Roberto Kaz on the Itaquaí River

Amazon wild west: where drugs, fish and logging are big money but life is cheap

A fisherman carries a large pirarucu – a giant fish of the Amazon that can sell for $1,000 each.
A fisherman carries a large pirarucu – a giant fish of the Amazon that can sell for $1,000 each. Photograph: Ricardo Oliveira/AFP/Getty Images

Near a sharp bend on the Itaquaí River, perched on a steep muddy bank, a lone wooden structure marks the last outpost of a fragile resistance.

This is the informal checkpoint used by the Indigenous rights advocate Bruno Pereira, an isolated stilted shack he hoped could help curb the rampant organised crime which threatens the pristine rainforest of the remote Javari Valley, the ecosystems within it and the Indigenous communities who call it home.

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