Please; help by passing this information, so that everyone can protest peacefully to the governments of Peru and Brazil.....   Ed Valle, California

BRASILIA (AFP) – Brazil has allowed the release of rare photographs of an uncontacted Amazonian tribe to bring attention to the plight of indigenous people who rights groups say are faced with possible annihilation.

The astonishing images, showing curious adults and children peering skyward with their faces dyed reddish-orange and toting bows, arrows and spears, were taken by Brazil's National IndianFoundation (FUNAI).

Rights group Survival International, which accompanied the government agency on the overflight near the Brazil-Peru border, said their baskets were full of papaya and manioc grown in a communal garden.

"Illegal loggers will destroy this indigenous people. It is essential that the Peruvian government stop them before it is too late," warned Survival's director Stephen Corry.

FUNAI has released similar photographs in the past and acknowledged that Peruvian loggers are sending some indigenous people fleeing across the border to less-affected rainforests in Brazil.

The coordinator of Brazil's Amazon Indian organization COIAB, Marcos Apurina, said he hoped the images would draw attention to the plight of the indigenous peoples and encourage their protection.

"It is necessary to reaffirm that these peoples exist, so we support the use of images that prove these facts. These peoples have had their most fundamental rights, particularly their right to life, ignored -- it is therefore crucial that we protect them," he said.

FUNAI says there are 67 tribes in Brazil that do not have sustained contact with the outside world. Some are often referred to as "uncontacted" tribes even though they have some kind of, albeit limited, contacts.

A year ago, rights groups sent a letter to then president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva voicing concern that the very survival of indigenous groups was under threat.

Brazil's latest census counted more than 500,000 indigenous people among more than 190 million Brazilians. Millions in the country, however, have some indigenous ancestry.

Most indigenous people in the Americas descend from Asian people who crossed a land bridge from Siberia, an estimated 13,000-17,000 years ago. One notable exception: the indigenous people on Chile's Easter island, in the Pacific, are ethnic (Rapa Nui) Polynesians.

What have you done lately? Been on any nice holidays? Nailed that project at work? Run a marathon, even? Well we're willing to bet you haven't done anything as amazing as one Mr. Ed Stafford -- unless you happened to have walked the entire length of the Amazon river in the past few months, in which case, we take it all back.

We reported on his amazing walking adventure from the mountains of Peru to the river's end at the Atlantic Ocean in Brazil back in August last year, and now Discovery Channel TV show of his travels. 

Mynor Schult

www.AmazonRiverExpert.com 

Read more: http://www.asylum.co.uk/2011/02/02/ed-stafford-walking-the-amazon-living-legend-hero/#ixzz1D0k6vFtU

Bueno despues de un dia intenso en la selva con los Indigenas de la nacion Shuar donde fui su huesped por dos dias, retornamos a la ciudad de Coca (Francisco Orellana City) solamente para encontrarnos con el desorden unico que se vive en un pais cuando la policia, encargada de protegernos de los malos,  secuestra a un Presidente de una republica.


Si hoy estoy en Ecuador y la situacion a sido bastante tensa durante todo el dia, asi que mi deseo mas intenso es coger el bote que me llevara manana hacia la frontera con Peru.  Realmente espero disfrutar de la calma, la serenidad y la belleza del Rio Napo.  Y solo al pensar en ello, me doy cuenta porque cada dia me gusta mas la Amazonia y se me hace mas dificil tolerar la ciudad.


En todo caso es un poco tarde y ha sido un dia intenso, asi que manana, o apenas tenga internet de nuevo, les comentare como continua Dios bendiciendo este bello recorrido que sigue las huellas del conquistador Espanol Francisco de Orellana.