Brazilian leader Raoni Metuktire, emblematic defender of the Amazon around the world, was admitted to intensive care on Saturday due to respiratory problems, his doctors announced. Brazil’s most influential indigenous leader, aged 93, was transferred “as a precaution” to the intensive care unit of the Dois Pinheiros hospital in Sinop (central-west), and “his Condition is stable,” the doctors wrote in a press release.
Already hospitalized for five days at the beginning of May for a hernia and suffering from chronic obstructive respiratory disease and heart problems, the indigenous chief returned to the hospital on Thursday due to a new indisposition, the text specifies.
Recognizable by his large lip plate, the cacique Raoni traveled the world and met presidents, monarchs and popes to plead the cause of the Amazon, the largest tropical forest in the world threatened by climate change, river pollution and deforestation.
Born in the village of Kapot, in the state of Mato Grosso (central-west), Raoni saw his first white man at the age of 20. He became known in Brazil from the 1970s, campaigning against the construction of the Trans-Amazon road during the military dictatorship (1964-1985). He made his first international tour in 1989, after meeting the British musician Sting in the Amazon.
