Violence has escalated in the small Brazilian town of Vila Bela da Santíssima Trindade as illegal gold mining on the nearby Sararé Indigenous Territory has exploded over the last two years, according to the 2025 Amazon Violence Atlas. Located in Mato Grosso state near the Bolivian border, Vila Bela da Santíssima Trindade recorded the highest rate of intentional violent deaths in the entire Brazilian Amazon from 2022 to 2024: 136 deaths per 100,000 residents. That is the highest rate in the 772 municipalities of the Brazilian Amazon and more than six times Brazil’s average of 20.8. “The worsening violence in the region appears to be strongly linked to the intensification of illegal mining in the Sararé Indigenous Territory,” authors of the report wrote. “It is notable that Vila Bela da Sant

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