Six years after the killing of Indigenous forest guardian Paulo Paulino Guajajara and the attempted killing of fellow guardian Laércio Guajajara in the Brazilian Amazon, the trial of the two suspects charged in the crimes still will not take place this year, triggering outrage among the Guajajara people and Indigenous rights advocates. “I am concerned because this trial never happened. … The criminals who killed my son were never convicted, they were never arrested,” Paulo Guajajara’s father, José Maria Guajajara, told Mongabay by phone. He said he is very frustrated because the trial should have happened a long time ago. “This year will pass again. Then next year will; they keep fooling me — are these authorities just fooling us?” On Nov. 1, 2019, Paulo Guajajara and Laércio Guajajara were attacked in an alleged ambush by illegal loggers in the Arariboia Indigenous Territory, in northeastern Maranhão state. A long-awaited anthropological report of the collective damages to the Indigenous community as a result of the crimes was concluded and attached to the court case in August. But the trial is very likely to only happen in early 2026, “given that there is not enough time for it to be held by the end of this year,” the advisory staff to the judge in the case told Mongabay in an emailed statement. “Until now, I never believed that the trial of the defendants would happen. With each passing day, I become more disappointed with Brazilian laws, especially with crimes against the defenders…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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