• The trial of the two suspects charged in the killing of Indigenous forest guardian Paulo Paulino Guajajara and attempted killing of fellow guardian Laércio Guajajara in the Brazilian Amazon in 2019 was pushed to 2026, triggering outrage among the Guajajara people and Indigenous rights advocates.
• The trial over the crimes will be a legal landmark as the first Indigenous cases to go before a federal jury in Maranhão; usually, killings are considered crimes against individuals and are tried by a state jury, but these crimes were escalated to the federal level because prosecutors made the case that they represented an aggression against the entire Guajajara community and Indigenous culture.
• A long-awaited anthropological report on 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 judge’s advisory staff in the case said.
• Paulo’s father, José Maria Paulino Guajajara, said he is “really angry” at white people for killing his son for no reason — and inside the Arariboia territory, where their entrance is forbidden. “We Indians are dying, and the white man won’t stop killing us.”

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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 Paulino 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 of life and the forest — and everything that depends on the forest to continue the cycle of life and cultures,” Laércio Guajajara, witness to Paulo’s killing and survivor of the ambush, told Mongabay in a phone message.

Between 1991 and 2023, 81 Indigenous Guajajara were killed in Maranhão; almost half of these killings, 38, happened in Arariboia — six were forest guardians. None of the perpetrators have been brought to trial.

The trial over the crimes against Paulo and Laércio will be a legal landmark as the first killing and attempted killing of Indigenous leaders to go before a federal jury in Maranhão. In most cases, killings are considered crimes against individuals and are tried by a state jury, but these crimes were escalated to the federal level because prosecutors made the case that they represented an aggression against the entire Guajajara community and Indigenous culture.

Laércio and Paulo were members of the “Guardians of the Forest,” a group of Indigenous Guajajara in Arariboia who risk their lives to protect their ancestral land against illegal logging, hunting and other environmental crimes. The group, formed a decade ago, also protects the Awá people, hunter-gatherers who live in voluntary isolation in the depths of Arariboia’s forests and are considered the most threatened Indigenous group on the planet.

After a dispute regarding the payment of the anthropological report — the judge had ruled that the federal government should bear the costs but the Attorney General’s Office appealed for the fees be paid by Funai, Brazil’s Indigenous affairs agency, or by the Federal Public Ministry — the federal government paid for 50% of the expert’s fees in early 2025. The latest decision handed down in the case, issued Oct. 2, determined the release of the remaining 50% of the amount. “After compliance with this determination, the case will be returned to the judge for the designation of the date of the jury session,” the judge’s advisory staff said.

Indigenous rights advocates praised the unique revelations of the anthropological report on the crimes’ impacts on the Guajajara people, which they said will be crucial to make justice for the victims and their families.

“Nothing that the report managed to extract I was aware of, or had been shared by the Guardians themselves,” the Guardians’ lawyer, Lucimar Carvalho, told Mongabay by phone. She has been serving as a prosecutors’ assistant for Paulo’s and Laércio’s case since 2020 — first as a lawyer with the Indigenist Missionary Council (CIMI), an advocacy group affiliated with the Catholic Church, and with the Guardians since 2022.

Carvalho said the testimonies collected by the report are “very strong” to assess the damages caused by the crimes to the entire Arariboia community, including the trauma of Paulo’s death, who was a very important figure within the group, as well as pressure over leaders to abandon their work as Guardians — some were even held accountable for the killing, triggering a psychological trauma. There was also the breakdown of the Guardians’ group, culminating in the lack of protection of the territory and disruption of their culture, especially for the uncontacted Awá, she added.

“When you break the structure of this group, you break the structure of the group that protects the territory in a way that the government does not do. What is the impact of this on the territory? It means more invasions, more hunters, more of everything,” Carvalho said.

Laércio Guajajara, a witness to, and survivor of, the killing of fellow Indigenous forest guardian Paulo Paulino Guajajara, in an interview on the Buriticupu River, in the Arariboia Indigenous Territory, in September 2023. Image by Ingrid Barros for Mongabay.

Gabriel Mateus Serra, a lawyer serving as CIMI’s prosecutorial assistant in the upcoming trial, agrees that the anthropological report will be key to measure the collective damages to the Indigenous community. “It brings historical accounts, it presents narratives from various Indigenous peoples, practically from all regions of the territory.”

He explained that both the logistics and costs involved in producing a report like this are challenging, but they succeeded, given its relevance. “It will be the first Indigenous case in a federal jury in Maranhão. It has great relevance to the state.”

Serra and Carvalho celebrated the fact that the defendants have not formally challenged the report, which could trigger further delays in the trial. However, their defense added statements in the proceedings that disagreed with some parts of the document and even quoted information not contained in the report, they added.

Antônio Wesly Nascimento Coelho and Raimundo Nonato Ferreira de Sousa were the two suspects indicted for the crimes. They had previously stated in their defense that they were just hunting game in Arariboia to feed their families and that it was the two guardians who attacked them first.

In their statements to the judge, the Federal Public Defender’s Office (DPU), representing Sousa, and lawyer Fernando Lopes Rodrigues, representing Coelho, said the anthropological report reveals the lack of consensus and the indirect and speculative nature of the narratives about the participation of those accused of the crime. Both affirmed the report noted that the information about the involvement of their clients is “riddled with internal differences and contradictions within the community” and that many accounts are based on “hearsay” with conditional expressions such as “could be,” which weakens the attribution of direct responsibility.

DPU and Rodrigues didn’t respond to Mongabay’s requests for comment about their alleged citation of information not contained in the anthropological report.

On the six-year anniversary of Paulo Paulino Guajajara’s death, more than 100 people reunited to honor his memory praying, singing, and lighting candles on his grave. Image courtesy of José Mário Paulino Guajajara.

Fighting for justice

The delay in the trial ends up discrediting the justice system in the victims’ eyes because those responsible for the crimes weren’t convicted, said Gilderlan Rodrigues, CIMI coordinator in Maranhão. “The family continues to suffer in the victim’s name. Whenever I go there, I see this feeling of impunity. And, of course, this will end up reflecting on potential conflicts with the Guardians,” Rodrigues said by phone. He noted that Paulo’s case has only been moving forward because they’re on top of it, as well as the press, highlighting Mongabay coverage.

Paulo’s father said he is “really angry” at white people for killing his son for no reason — and inside the Arariboia territory, where their entrance is forbidden. “We Indians are dying, and the white man won’t stop killing us,” José Maria said. “If we scratch a white man, there’s justice: The Indian goes to jail, but the white man doesn’t.”

Despite the disappointment regarding the trial delay and impunity in the case in these six years, Laércio said he’ll keep defending the forest. “I’ll never give up. I will always be a warrior until the end.”

On the six-year anniversary of Paulo’s death, José Maria and his family visited Paulo’s grave for the first time and paid tribute to him for two days, including the Day of the Dead. “It was very emotional,” José Maria told Mongabay by phone.

More than 100 people reunited to honor Paulo’s memory praying, singing and having lunch together, thanks to donations, he added. They also lit candles on Paulo’s grave, mourned his loss, sang in the Guajajara language and gave emotional speeches in remembrance of him, as seen in a video shared with Mongabay. “I’m grateful to the people who helped [with donations] and to those who spoke kindly about my son and our people,” José Maria said.

The “Guardians of the Forest” is a group of Indigenous Guajajara in Arariboia who risk their lives to protect their ancestral land against illegal logging, hunting and other environmental crimes. Image by Karla Mendes/Mongabay.
José Maria Paulino Guajajara (right), father of Paulo Paulino Guajajara, with Paulo’s son (center) and brother (left) in September 2023. Image by Ingrid Barros for Mongabay.

When Mongabay visited José Maria in 2023, he said he dreamed of building a school in his village and name it after Paulo — José Maria is a singer and the school would teach the children to sing the Guajajara’s traditional songs to preserve their culture.

Two years later, he said he is still waiting for donations to make his dream come true. “He never fought with anyone, never hit anyone; everyone liked him. That’s why it’s so emotional,” José Maria said. “I can’t forget it. It’s so sad when I remember my son talking to me. Then I can’t take it, and I cry. I and his mom too. We miss him so much.”

This article is part of the series “Dying for Arariboia,” which includes an investigation into illegal cattle that received the 2025 John B. Oakes Award for Distinguished Environmental Journalism.

Banner image: Composite of photos of Paulo Paulino Guajajara’s father, José Maria Paulino Guajajara, and his family visiting Paulo’s grave for the first time, and a portrait of Paulo in the Arariboia Indigenous Territory in 2019. Image by José Mário Paulino Guajajara (left and right) and Karla Mendes/Mongabay (center) and design by Julia Larsen/Mongabay.

The Ka’aiwar Indigenous Association of Forest Guardians of the Arariboia Indigenous Territory welcomes donations to build a school named after Paulo Paulino Guajajara. The association, set up three years after Paulo’s killing, also receives donations for protecting the Arariboia Indigenous Territory.

Karla Mendes is a staff investigative and feature reporter for Mongabay in Brazil and the first Brazilian to win the John B. Oakes Award for Distinguished Environmental Journalism. Member of the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Investigations Network, she is also the first Brazilian and Latin American ever elected to the board of the Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ); she was also nominated Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) chair. Read her stories published on Mongabay here. Find her on 𝕏, Instagram, LinkedIn, Threads and Bluesky.

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