Renowned Amazon tribe chief and environmental protester dies of coronavirus as Brazil's death toll hits 46,510
- Paulinho Payakan, 66, who was chief of the Kayapó tribe, died on Wednesday
- He led protests against the Belo Monte hydro-electric dam in the 1980s
- Epidemic has spread among indigenous communities and is killing tribal elders
- There have been 46,510 deaths in total, with 1,269 announced since last update
A renowned indigenous tribe chief who was one of the most famous defenders of the Amazon rainforest has died from coronavirus in Brazil.
Paulinho Payakan, who was chief of the Kayapó tribe, led protests against the Belo Monte hydro-electric dam in the 1980s.
Alongside musician Sting, Payakan helped bring international attention to the environmental and social cost of building the world's third largest dam on the Xingu river in the Amazon rainforest.
Payakan, 66, died on Wednesday morning in the hospital of Redençao in southern Pará state, where the coronavirus epidemic has spread among indigenous communities and is killing tribal elders.
There have been 46,510 deaths in total, with 1,269 announced since the last update on Tuesday. There have also been 32,188 new cases, bringing the total to 955,377.
Renowned indigenous tribe chief Paulinho Payakan, who was one of the most famous defenders of the Amazon rainforest, has died from coronavirus in Brazil
Alongside musician Sting (front row, second from right), Payakan (third from right) helped bring international attention to the environmental and social cost of building the world's third largest dam on the Xingu river in the Amazon rainforest
Payakan was sentenced in 1998 to six years in prison for the rape of an 18-year-old student in 1992 with the assistance of his wife, who was also convicted.
The crime badly hurt Payakan's reputation, said Sydney Possuelo, Brazil's best-known explorer of isolated Amazon tribes who was head of the government's indigenous affairs agency Funai at the time.
Still, Possuelo praised Payakan for seeking the economic survival of his tribe while maintaining its indigenous identity.
One fruit of his efforts was a deal with eco-friendly cosmetic retailer The Body Shop and its socially aware Trade Not Aid marketing initiative, by which the tribe gathered Brazil nuts in the rainforest for the extraction of oil used to make cosmetics.
Payakan, 66, died on Wednesday morning in the hospital of Redençao in southern Pará state, where the coronavirus epidemic has spread among indigenous communities and is killing tribal elders
The British company is now owned by Brazilian cosmetics group Natura & Co.
Belo Monte started generating electricity in 2016, but the original design was scaled down due to an international outcry.
The dam only produces about a third of its planned 11,200 megawatts.
It comes after a senior official in Brazil said the country's coroanvirus outbreak was under control, even though it its the No. 2 hotspot after the United States.
Walter Braga Netto, the head of the office of the president's chief of staff, known as Casa Civil, said: 'There is a crisis, we sympathize with bereaved families, but it is managed.'
Brazil is fast approaching 1 million cases, although experts say the true number is likely higher due to patchy testing.
Last week, the country overtook the UK's total number of deaths.
Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Director Carissa Etienne earlier said in a video briefing from Washington that Brazil is a major concern.
Latin America's largest country accounts for about a quarter of the roughly 4 million coronavirus cases in the Americas and nearly 25 per cent of the deaths, she said.
'We are not seeing transmission slowing down' in Brazil, Etienne said.
PAHO recommends that Brazil and other regional countries strengthen social distancing and urged that reopening of the economy be done slowly and carefully.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has long opposed social distancing measures, and many of the country's states are re-opening for business even though the outbreak remains severe.
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