The Kayopo, an indigenous tribe in the Brazilian rain forest, have lost more than two hundred thousand acres of land to gold mining encouraged by Jair Bolsonaro. On this week’s Kicker, Jon Lee Anderson, a staff writer at The New Yorker, tells Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, how he embedded with the Kayopo, who had no regular contact with the outside world until the 1950s. Anderson describes the tactics used by gold prospectors to sow discord among the Kayopo, and tells of the heartbreak some feel as they accept work that they know will destroy the environment.
SHOW NOTES
Blood Gold in the Brazilian Rain Forest, Jon Lee Anderson, The New Yorker
Amanda Darrach is a contributor to CJR and a visiting scholar at the University of St Andrews School of International Relations. Follow her on Twitter @thedarrach.