Indigenous Amazon chief of Kayapó people dies from coronavirus
The Kayapó chief came to prominence after leading the protests against the construction of the Belo Monte hydro-electric dam in the 1980s.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFF, REUTERSIndigenous leader Paulinho Paiakan of Kayapo tribe, takes part in a protest against Brazil's president Michel Temer for the violation of indigenous people's rights, in Brasilia(photo credit: REUTERS)
The indigenous chief of the Kayapó people settled in the Amazon Rainforest, Paulinho Paiakan, died after contracting the coronavirus.Paiakan, 66, passed away on Wednesday morning in the hospital of Redençao in southern Pará state, where the coronavirus epidemic has spread among indigenous communities and is killing tribal elders.The Kayapó chief came to prominence after leading the protests against the construction of the Belo Monte hydro-electric dam in the 1980s.Alongside Kayapó chief Raoni and musician Sting, Payakan helped bring international attention to the environmental and social cost of building the world’s third largest dam on the Xingu river in the Amazon rainforest.The Kayapó chief was sentenced in 1998 to six years in prison for the rape of an 18-year-old student in 1992 with the assistance of his wife, who was also convicted.The crime badly hurt Payakan’s reputation, said Sydney Possuelo, Brazil’s best-known explorer of isolated Amazon tribes who was head of the government’s indigenous affairs agency Funai at the time.Still, Possuelo praised Payakan for seeking the economic survival of his tribe while maintaining its indigenous identity.
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