Brazil's indigenous people swear to fight for Amazon 'to last drop of blood'

Indigenous people from the Mura tribe show a deforested area in unmarked indigenous lands inside the Amazon rainforest near Humaita, Amazonas State, Brazil August 20, 2019. REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino

CANUTAMA, Brazil (Reuters) - Members of Brazil's Mura indigenous tribe painted their bodies with orange-red paint and took up long bows and clubs as they headed into the jungle this week, prepared for battle. Their enemy? The deforestation and destruction of their home, the Amazon rainforest.

There are more than 18,000 Mura that live in Amazonas state, the largest and best-preserved state in Brazil's Amazon rainforest, according to data compiled by the non-government organisation Instituto Socioambiental.