Why hasn’t the trial for the 2019 killing of forest guardian Paulo Paulino Guajajara and the attempted killing of fellow guardian Láercio Guajajara, in the Brazilian Amazon, taken place yet? “[T]here are no available slots on the court’s hearing calendar,” the advisory staff to the judge in the case told Mongabay in an emailed statement, one year after claiming lack of time for it to be held in 2025, sparking outrage among Guajajara Indigenous, activists and authorities. “They’re just stringing me along. Because if they actually intended to resolve this, they would have done it by now,” Paulo Guajajara’s father, José Maria Paulino Guajajara, told Mongabay by phone. “This is taking way too long — it’s been seven years already! That’s exactly why I’m here, feeling pretty fed up, to say the least.” “It’s as if we aren’t seen as human beings, right? When someone kills an Indigenous person, it’s as if it’s nothing at all — just the same as killing any animal,” Laércio Guajajara told Mongabay by phone. “We have a lot of negative thoughts about the justice system regarding this case.” On Nov. 1, 2019, Paulo Guajajara and Laércio Guajajara were fired upon in an alleged ambush by illegal loggers in the Arariboia Indigenous Territory, in northeastern Maranhão state. In August 2025, 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, bringing hope to the Guajajara people, activists and the…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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