Karla Mendes
Mongabay
Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
Contact Karla
Discover and connect with journalists and influencers around the world, save time on email research, monitor the news, and more.
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Past articles by Karla:
Brazilian Indigenous anthropologists turn the tables from ‘objects of study’ to active voices
ST ANDREWS, Scotland — Francineia Fontes Baniwa laughs enthusiastically as she tells of a conversation she had with her traveling companion, Nelly Marubo while on the train to Scotland: “Nelly looked at me and said, ‘One day we are also going to be university professors!’ And I said, ‘for sure.’” Nelly and Fran are examples […] → Read More
‘If Brazil starts with us, why did we arrive last?’: Q&A with Indigenous lawmaker Célia Xakriabá
BRASÍLIA — Célia Xakriabá recalls how, during her campaign last year for a seat in the Chamber of Deputies, Brazil’s lower house of Congress, she was always asked how non-Indigenous Brazilians could help Indigenous people. She would answer with a question of her own: “How many of you have voted for Indigenous candidacies?” They would […] → Read More
Joenia Wapichana: ‘I want to see the Yanomami and Raposa Serra do Sol territories free of invasions’
BRASÍLIA, Brazil — “I want to see the Yanomami and Raposa Serra do Sol territories free of invasions,” Joenia Wapichana, the first Indigenous woman named president of Brazil’s national Indigenous affairs agency, Funai, tells Mongabay, describing one of her dreams for northern Roraima state. Like a premonition, she says prominent Indigenous leader and shaman Davi […] → Read More
Sonia Guajajara: Turnaround from jail threats to Minister of Indigenous Peoples
BRASÍLIA, Brazil — Hell, tragic and terror. These are the main key words used by Minister of Indigenous Peoples Sonia Guajajara to describe to Mongabay what the four years of the government of former President Jair Bolsonaro meant for Native peoples. “It was really [like a] hell. Everything we talked about was monitored.” She recalls […] → Read More
‘We lost the biggest ally’: Nelly Marubo on her friend Bruno Pereira’s legacy
ST ANDREWS, Scotland — This autumn, Mongabay had the opportunity to interview Nelly Marubo, friend and colleague of Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira, who was brutally murdered in the Brazilian Amazon in June 2022, along with British journalist Dom Phillips. Nelly is one of a new generation of Indigenous anthropologists, born in the forest but educated […] → Read More
Murders of 2 Pataxó leaders prompt Ministry of Indigenous Peoples to launch crisis office
The escalation of violence in Brazil’s northeastern region with the murders of two young Pataxó Indigenous leaders this week triggered the newly created Ministry of Indigenous Peoples to set up a crisis office to monitor land conflicts in the region. On Jan. 17, 17-year-old Nawir Brito de Jesus and 25-year-old Samuel Cristiano do Amor Divino […] → Read More
For Indigenous Brazilians, capital attack was ‘scenario of war’ akin to deforestation
BRASÍLIA — Since Jan. 8, the whole world has watched as Brazil gets to grips with a violent attack led by supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro on key government buildings in the nation’s capital. The National Congress, the Presidential Palace and the Supreme Federal Court, the centers of the three branches of government, were […] → Read More
‘Funai is ours’: Brazil’s Indigenous affairs agency is reclaimed under Lula
BRASÍLIA, Brazil — “We, civil servants, are reopening Funai to Indigenous peoples,” anthropologist Janete Carvalho announced in a recent act at the headquarters of Brazil’s federal agency for Indigenous affairs. Under former president Jair Bolsonaro, she said, Funai officials were “really forced to not fulfill our mission” over the past four years. “We, civil servants, are reopening […] → Read More
President Lula’s first pro-environment acts protect Indigenous people and the Amazon
BRASÍLIA, Brazil — In the first day of his third mandate as Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, issued measures to protect the Amazon and Indigenous people, acts highly celebrated by environmentalists and activists as a reversal of an anti-environment-and-Indigenous era from predecessor Jair Bolsonaro. Effective Jan. 2, six decrees revoked or altered measures imposed […] → Read More
Video: Stolen Quilombola cemeteries in the Amazon, and the probe that revealed it all
ALTO ACARÁ, Brazil — In November 2021, I went to Pará state, in the Brazilian Amazon, to investigate claims of land grabbing in traditional territories, leveled against one of Brazil’s leading palm oil exporters. The date wasn’t by chance, as I was there to witness a historical moment on the Day of the Dad, when […] → Read More
Major Brazil palm oil exporter accused of fraud, land-grabbing over Quilombola cemeteries
ALTO ACARÁ, Brazil — With trembling hands, Raimundo Serrão lights candles for his grandmother at the Livramento Cemetery’s cross on the Day of the Dead because he couldn’t find her grave. Serrão and others in the area say one of the country’s leading palm oil exporters has buried it under palm crops. “They have planted […] → Read More
In Brazil’s agricultural heartland, rivers run dry as monoculture advances
NAVIRAÍ, Brazil — The red earth is dusty and cracked, parched from weeks without rain. Fields planted with neat rows of corn stretch for miles across this part of Mato Grosso do Sul state, Brazil’s agricultural heartland. Tucked amid the cornstalks swaying in the wind, a sign points the way to the Várzeas do Rio […] → Read More
Brazil’s biggest elected Indigenous caucus to face tough 2023 Congress
In the 200-year anniversary of Brazil’s independence from Portugal, Indigenous people achieved a historical milestone: the highest number of Indigenous candidates elected to the National Congress in the country’s history, a key move for the future of their rights, which have been under attack since the colonization period, researchers say. In the Oct. 2 general […] → Read More
In Brazil, a heavily fined firm is also accused of waging a ‘palm oil war’ on communities
Along a northeastern stretch of the Brazilian Amazon, a palm oil war has broken out. Escalating violence triggered by land disputes between palm oil companies, on one side, and Indigenous and traditional communities on the other has intensified in recent months in this region that accounts for most of the country’s palm oil production — […] → Read More
Mongabay probe key as Brazil court rules on palm oil pesticide contamination
A Mongabay investigation into palm oil contamination in the Brazilian Amazon has helped federal prosecutors to obtain a court decision this week to scrutinize the environmental impacts of pesticides used by oil palm plantations on Indigenous communities and the environment in northern Pará state. On Oct. 4, the Federal Circuit Court for the First Region […] → Read More
The Fixers: Top U.S. flooring retailers linked to Brazilian firm probed for corruption
A yearlong investigation by Mongabay and Earthsight has uncovered new evidence of corrupt deals and illegal practices used by Brazil’s largest flooring exporter, Indusparquet, and its suppliers. From its headquarters in São Paulo to the Amazon and the Atlantic Forest, Indusparquet has used fixers to secure secret timber deals from suppliers who have been fined […] → Read More
With rights at risk, Indigenous Brazilians get on the ballot to fight back
It was 35 years ago that Ailton Krenak, while painting his entire face with the black dye of the jenipapo fruit, protested against violence against Indigenous peoples in one of Brazil’s highest seats of power: the speaker’s podium in the lower House of Congress. “There is Indigenous blood in every hectare of Brazil’s 8 million […] → Read More
Indigenous Brazilians demand justice as 3 killed in escalating violence
Indigenous groups in Brazil are demanding justice after a spate of killings allegedly linked to land disputes left three people dead and two injured in the space of just two days, and raised concerns about escalating violence against native peoples throughout the country. Janildo Oliveira Guajajara was shot and killed by unknown assailants in an […] → Read More
Violence persists in Amazon region where Pereira and Phillips were killed
Less than two months since the killing of British journalist Dom Phillips and Brazilian Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira in early June, armed illegal gold miners reportedly intimidated government rangers near the remote Amazon region where the pair were killed. Indigenous leaders say this ongoing reign of violence poses a grave danger to those working and […] → Read More
As the Amazon burns, only the weather can ward off a catastrophe, experts say
Smoke from fires in parts of the Brazilian Amazon are getting closer to cities. The combination of the highest number of forest fires in 15 years and highest ever deforestation rate recorded in the month of June, this year’s dry season is off to a fiery start, raising concerns about its peak over the next […] → Read More