Indigenous leader inspires an Amazon city to grant personhood to an endangered river

By FABIANO MAISONNAVE, TERESA DE MIGUEL and ANDRÉ PENNER
Associated Press

GUAJARA-MIRIM, Brazil (AP) — In late June, the Amazon city of Guajara-Mirim approved a law that designates the Komi Memem River “as a living entity and subject to rights.” The author of the initiative is the Indigenous leader and Councilman Francisco Oro Waram, from the Wari´ tribe. The law represents the latest effort to draw attention to a wave of invasions that had intensified under the rule of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, a historical opponent of Indigenous land rights. Despite the end of his presidency, the invasions persist.