Amazon defender Raoni Metuktire receives palliative care at 94

The concern is great for Raoni Metuktire, emblematic defender of the Amazon forest. Aged 94, the Brazilian cacique suffers from cancer of the digestive system and is receiving palliative care, his institute announced on Monday.

Home care

He was diagnosed with “poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma” and “given his age, his clinical condition and the high risks linked to aggressive treatments, the medical teams recommended palliative care”, indicated the Raoni Institute on social networks.

The cacique is cared for as part of a “home care system” in Peixoto de Azevedo, a town in the state of Mato Grosso (central-west) located near the Amazonian village where he lived for decades.

A tireless defender of indigenous peoples

Leader of the Kayapo people, Raoni was hospitalized for a month in Sao Paulo after an operation for intestinal obstruction and was released in July. Tests later revealed a cancerous tumor. Although weakened, in April he still participated in the Free Land Camp, the largest indigenous demonstration in Brazil, bringing together thousands of people each year for the rights they claim over their ancestral lands.

Our articles on Brazil

With his lip plate – a sign of the Kayapo warrior ready to die for his land – Raoni became known in the 1970s. The leader traveled the world and met many leaders to plead the cause of indigenous peoples and the Amazon, the largest tropical forest in the world, threatened by climate change, river pollution and deforestation.