The Roosevelt Reserve
Deep within the Brazilian Amazon, straddling the states of Rondônia and Mato Grosso, lies the Roosevelt Indigenous Reserve. This 2.7 million-hectare territory is the constitutionally protected land of the Cinta Larga people. The reserve is on a massive kimberlite pipe, a geological formation that is a large diamond deposit outside of Africa. Following the discovery of diamonds here in 1999, thousands of illegal miners, known as garimpeiros, flooded the region.
The influx of miners created a volatile situation. Brazilian law forbids mining on indigenous territories, but the sheer size and remoteness of the reserve made enforcement difficult. By 2004, an estimated $2 billion worth of diamonds had been illegally extracted and smuggled from the reserve. For the Cinta Larga, whose population had dwindled from around 5,000 to just 1,300 following contact with the outside world in the 1960s, this invasion was the part of a long history of violent conflict with outsiders over resources like rubber and timber.
The April 2004 Massacre
Tensions reached a breaking point in early April 2004. After repeated warnings and minor skirmishes, a group of Cinta Larga warriors moved to expel a large group of garimpeiros operating in a remote area of the reserve. On April 7, the confrontation turned deadly. The Cinta Larga, armed with a mix of traditional clubs, spears, arrows, and some firearms, attacked the miners' camp.
In the days that followed, federal police entered the reserve and made a grim discovery: the bodies of 29 miners. Forensic reports indicated that while some had been shot, most were killed with traditional weapons at close range, with evidence suggesting a coordinated execution. The Cinta Larga maintained they were acting in self-defense, claiming they had overheard the miners planning to attack them. The event shocked Brazil and drew international attention to the violent conflicts brewing over illegal resource extraction in the Amazon. The federal government responded by sending in hundreds of agents to secure the area. Twenty-two members of the Cinta Larga were eventually indicted for the killings, though the prosecution faced legal challenges due to the special status of indigenous peoples under the Brazilian constitution.