Justice Delayed: Amazon Forest Guardian Murder Trial Pushed to 2026

Nearly six years have passed since Indigenous forest guardian Paulo Paulino Guajajara was killed and his colleague Laércio Guajajara was wounded in what authorities believe was an ambush by illegal loggers in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest. Yet the two suspects charged in these crimes still await trial, with proceedings now delayed until early 2026.

The attack occurred on November 1, 2019, in the Arariboia Indigenous Territory in northeastern Maranhão state, where the Guajajara people have long fought to protect their ancestral lands from deforestation and illegal logging. Paulo Guajajara was part of a group of Indigenous guardians who risked their lives to defend the forest from environmental criminals.

“I am concerned because this trial never happened,” José Maria Guajajara, Paulo’s father, told Mongabay. “The criminals who killed my son were never convicted, they were never arrested.” His frustration echoes throughout the Guajajara community and among Indigenous rights advocates who see the delays as emblematic of Brazil’s failure to protect environmental defenders.

Court officials cited insufficient time as the reason for pushing the trial to 2026, despite an important anthropological report on damages to the Indigenous community being completed and added to the case in August. The prolonged delay highlights a troubling pattern in Brazil, where crimes against environmental and Indigenous rights defenders often go unpunished, sending a dangerous message that such violence will be tolerated.