The Brazilian army has been accused of giving Amazon Indians guerrilla training after a newspaper published leaked photographs depicting troops apparently showing tribesmen how to use assault rifles.
The army denied there was anything irregular about its actions, saying the participation of Indians in special forces training sessions was routine in the states of Rio de Janeiro, Goias and Amazonas.
In a written statement, the army said: "This kind of activity is based on the practice of 40 years of work of the special forces together with indigenous communities or [their] descendants."
But representatives of Brazil's Foundation for the Protection of Indians (Funai) have called for an immediate investigation. Funai's chief prosecutor, Luiz Villares, said his organization had not authorized the use of Indians in army training sessions.
"We will ask the federal public prosecutor to investigate [and] I will send a request for an explanation to the army, explaining that they cannot do this and that they must stop," he told the Rio newspaper Extra.
One of the pictures published on Sunday shows a line of crouching indigenous women brandishing automatic rifles. Another features an Indian man, in black flip-flops and orange shorts, aiming an assault rifle under the gaze of a uniformed soldier.
There were contradictory reports as to when the pictures were taken and what the Indians were doing.
According to army officials in Brasilia, the photographs were taken in the Amazon region in the 1980s. But an arms expert consulted by the newspaper said one of the weapons seen in the pictures was a Colt M4 rifle, which has been employed by Brazil's army only since 2004.
There were also conflicting accounts of what the Indians were doing in the photos.
Jose Alvez Firmino, the president of the National Federation of Military Soldiers, said the pictures showed "guerrilla training."
But army officials said the Indians, who they claimed were volunteers, were being used to train soldiers for "war scenarios." The army's statement also said those pictured were actually descendants of Indians.
"Almost all of the communities in the interior of the Amazon are [made up] of descendants of Indians, which could probably confuse a careless observer," it said.
Villares rejected this as a justification, saying: "The use of Indians does not have the authorization of Funai. This applies to descendants as well as Indians."
Priscila Carvalho of Brazil's Indigenous Missionary Council said the Indians may have been used because of their knowledge of the sprawling rainforest.
"We know that this is going on in various places and imagine that it has to do with them having a greater knowledge of the region," she said.
The revelations came as Amnesty International accused the Brazilian government of failing to protect the country's indigenous population from violence and poverty.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the