Amazon town becomes brazil’s most violent city as illegal gold mining devastates indigenous territory

A small Brazilian town near the Bolivian border has become the most violent municipality in the entire Amazon region, with researchers directly linking the surge in deaths to an explosion of illegal gold mining on sacred Indigenous lands.

Vila Bela da Santíssima Trindade, located in Mato Grosso state, recorded a staggering 136 intentional violent deaths per 100,000 residents between 2022 and 2024—more than six times Brazil’s national average, according to the newly released 2025 Amazon Violence Atlas. The town wasn’t even among the region’s top 50 most violent cities in the previous report, highlighting the dramatic deterioration.

The violence coincides with a devastating invasion of the nearby Sararé Indigenous Territory, home to the Nambikwara people. Approximately 2,000 illegal gold miners have overrun lands traditionally inhabited by just 200 Indigenous residents. The territory now suffers from more than 70% of all deforestation on Indigenous lands due to illegal mining activities across the Brazilian Amazon. In 2024 alone, miners destroyed over 3,000 hectares—equivalent to more than 7,400 acres—within the territory’s protected boundaries.

The human toll has been equally severe. Vila Bela da Santíssima Trindade saw violent deaths jump from 12 in 2022 to 17 in 2023, then skyrocket to 42 in 2024. This crisis illustrates the broader environmental and social devastation occurring when illegal extractive industries target Indigenous territories, creating conflicts that endanger both native communities and surrounding populations while destroying irreplaceable Amazon ecosystems.