French president Nicolas Sarkozy and Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed a $12 billion strategic partnership agreement in Rio de Janeiro on Dec. 23, the second day of Sarkozy's official visit to Brazil. The two presidents also finalized nearly a dozen other agreements, covering space, nuclear energy, climate change, biodiversity, professional training and scientific and cultural cooperation. Sarkozy currently holds the rotating presidency of the 27-member European Union (EU), and his visit included the renewal on Dec. 22 of a strategic partnership agreement between Brazil and the EU. After the two-day official visit, Sarkozy and his wife, Carla Bruni, were planning a vacation at a Brazilian resort.

A Brazilian rancher suspected of orchestrating the 2005 murder of Sister Dorothy Stang, a US-born nun who spoke out against logging in the Amazon rainforest, is to be charged in the killing and brought to trial following his arrest for land fraud, prosecutors announced Dec. 28. Federal police arrested the rancher, Regivaldo Galvão, two days earlier at his home in the northern Amazon state of Pará. He was accused of trying to use forged titles to claim possession of the same public land that Sister Dorothy was fighting to protect when she was fatally shot in February 2005.

Makuxi children at Serra do SolIndians across Brazil celebrated Dec. 10 as the majority of judges in the country's Supreme Court ruled to uphold indigenous land rights in a key case. Indigenous leaders called the decision, made on the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a "great victory." The ruling concerns the indigenous territory Raposa-Serra do Sol ("Land of the Fox and Mountain of the Sun") in the Amazon state of Roraima. A small group of powerful farmers, who want the Indians' land and are supported by local politicians, had petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn the Brazilian government's legal recognition of the territory. President Lula da Silva signed a decree recognizing the territory in 2005.

Brazilian military exercises along the border with Paraguay are escalating tensions between the South American neighbors. Operation Southern Border II mobilized 3,500 soldiers from the Brazilian armed forces Oct. 19 along the border, as part of a larger force of some 10,000 soldiers also deployed along the borders with Uruguay and Argentina. The troops are to remain in place until Oct. 24. Paraguay's President Fernando Lugo warned Brazil in a news conference in Asunción that "not even one millimeter of the territorial sovereignty of the country can be bothered"—or "the Paraguayan reaction will be swift."

Indians from the Enawene Nawe tribe in the Brazilian Amazon occupied and shut down the site of a huge hydroelectric dam Oct. 11, destroying equipment, in an attempt to save the river that runs through their land. The Enawene Nawe say the 77 dams to be built on the River Juruena will pollute the water and stop the fish reaching their spawning grounds. Fish is crucial to the Enawene Nawe's diet as they do not eat red meat. It also plays a vital part in their rituals. "If the fish get sick and die so will the Enawene Nawe," said one member of the tribe.

The Amazon is being destroyed more than three times as fast as last year, Brazilian officials said Sept. 29, acknowledging a sharp reversal after three years of decline in the rate of deforestation. Brazilian Environment Minister Carlos Minc said upcoming nationwide elections are partly to blame, with governors in the Amazon region turning a blind eye to illegal logging in hopes of gaining votes locally.

Recovered arrows: evidenceArrows just discovered by government officials in one of the remotest corners of the Brazilian Amazon prove that uncontacted Indians are fleeing from Peru into Brazil. The arrows were recovered by members of the Brazilian government's Indian affairs department (FUNAI), near a protection post established to monitor the movements of uncontacted Indians in the region. According to José Carlos Meirelles Jr, head of the post, the arrows are different from those used by uncontacted groups on the Brazilian side of the border. Footprints, the remains of a fire and the site where the Indians camped overnight on the riverbank were also found. It is estimated that they numbered six or seven.

Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF) postponed a ruling Sept. 24 in a landmark case to decide if the Pataxó Hã-Hã-Hãe indigenous people have legal rights to lands opened to farmers and ranchers 26 years ago by state authorities in Bahía. The 54,000 hectares were delineated as indigenous territory by the federal Indian Protection Service in 1937, but some 300 farms now cover approximately half the territory. Some 4,000 Pataxó live on the other half. The case was initiated in 1982 by the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI), successor to the Protection Service, which sought to annul land titles illegally granted by local governments.

In a critical decision on Aug. 27, one of Brazil's supreme court judges voted in favor of maintaining Raposa Serra do Sol (RSS) as a continuous indigenous land. Although the other judges on the court still need to vote on the matter, this was seen as an important victory for indigenous peoples. Minister Ayres Britto's decision was celebrated by the indigenous peoples of RSS, who had been mobilized in their communities, as well as in the Roraima state capitol and outside the Supreme Court in Brasilia. Raposa Serra do Sol is the traditional home of some 19,000 Ingaricó, Macuxi, Patamona, Taurepang and Wapichana people in Northern Brazil. Located on the boundary of Guyana and Venezuela, RSS is over 6,000 square miles of mountains, savannahs, and forests.

Indigenous groups in Peru ended more than a week of militant protests Aug. 20 at key energy sites after lawmakers agreed to overturn a new land law issued by President Alan García, which sought to ease corporate access to communal territories. García had issued the law by decree earlier under special powers Congress granted him to bring Peruvian law into compliance with a new free-trade deal with the US. A congressional commission voted to revoke the law Aug. 19, and a floor vote is expected later this week. "We have lifted the strike," said Alberto Pizango, head of Amazon indigenous alliance AIDESEP. "We have faith and expect Congress to follow through." (Reuters, Aug. 20)