Brasilia, July 30 (RHC)-- In northern Brazil, residents of a remote indigenous village say at least 10 heavily armed gold miners in military uniforms raided their community last week, stabbing a leader to death. 

The assault on the Wajãpi village came as new government data show that deforestation in the Amazon has dramatically increased since President Bolsonaro took office in January, losing more than 1,300 square miles of forest cover—a 39% increase over the same period last year. 

The drastic change is due to Bolsonaro’s rolling back of regulations and punitive measures on illegal logging.  In May, a group of former Brazilian environment ministers warned: “We’re facing the risk of runaway deforestation in the Amazon.” One former minister said that Brazil was becoming an “exterminator of the future.”