Brazilian Forces Wage War on Illegal Gold Mining Devastating Amazon Indigenous Lands

A Guardian investigation finds prospecting settlements have brought violence, exploitation and environmental ruin to protected territory

Brazilian security forces are battling to eradicate illegal gold-mining operations that have devastated protected Indigenous territory in the Amazon, according to an on-the-ground investigation by The Guardian.

The newspaper visited Vila Cururu, an illegal mining settlement at the heart of what it described as Brazil's most desecrated Indigenous territory, finding a landscape scarred by prospecting and, until recently, rampant exploitation. A brothel at the foot of the settlement had been, in the paper's words, "a hive of depravity" just weeks earlier, with intoxicated prospectors gathering around tables and sex workers brought to shacks behind the building.

The reporting captures the human and environmental costs of Brazil's long-running gold rush, which has drawn thousands of prospectors into remote Indigenous lands in search of profit, often with devastating consequences for local communities and the rainforest itself. Brazilian authorities have stepped up operations against the settlements as part of a broader campaign to reclaim protected territory from illegal mining networks.

The crackdown reflects growing pressure on Brazil's government to address deforestation and the exploitation of Indigenous communities in the Amazon, an issue that has drawn international attention amid broader concerns about climate change and the preservation of the world's largest rainforest.

— Compiled from reporting by The Guardian.