Brazilian federal agents aboard three helicopters descended on an illegal mining site in the Amazon rainforest. They were met with gunfire, and the shooters escaped, leaving behind an increasingly familiar find for authorities: Starlink internet units.
, has almost 4,000 low-orbit satellites lined up across the skies, connecting people in remote corners of the Amazon and providing a crucial advantage to Ukranian forces on the battlefield. The lightweight, high-speed internet system has also proved a new and valuable tool for Brazil’s illegal miners, with reliable service for coordinating logistics, receiving advance warning of law enforcement raids and making payments without flying back to the city.
The environment agency, known as Ibama, has seized seven Starlink terminals in Yanomami land over the past five weeks, including the two this Tuesday, the agency’s press office said in an emailed statement. An untold number of the highly portable Starlink terminals could have been taken with miners as they fled sites into the rainforest.
That project with the Brazilian government, however, hasn’t advanced. SpaceX and the communications ministry haven’t signed any contract, and only three terminals were installed in Amazon schools for a 12-month trial period, the ministry’s press office said in an emailed response to questions.In Atalaia do Norte, on the western reaches of the Brazilian Amazon near the borders with Peru and Colombia, Rubeney de Castro Alves installed Starlink at his hotel in December.
The benefits of connectivity were immediately apparent to bad actors in the Amazon, Hugo Loss, operations coordinator for Brazil´s environment agency, told the AP in a phone interview. It allows coordination of equipment, miners, food and fuel.
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