Amazon Insurgency

The Amazonian Insurgency is an ongoing insurgency in Brazil with spillover in Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia, and other neighboring countries. It started in 1975 when militants from the Communist Party of Brazil fled the Araguia river basin and established a stronghold in the State of Amazonas. Meanwhile, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood popular among the indigenous Muslim communities of the Amazon began to spread its influence as it preached against the Brazilian military dictatorship. In 1979, Sheikh Altair Remane created the Amazonian Islamic Liberation Front and began getting weapons from the Medellín Cartel and Chinese government. They began launching sporadic attacks against the Brazilian military and captured some villages. The AILF was against both the government and communist groups, and was responsible for bombings and political assassinations throughout the early 1980s. The Islamic insurgency fully broke out after the 1985 election when the government promised to militarize Amazonas and neighboring states, and cooperate with Peru to defeat the insurgency. In 1988 Rio Branco and other major settlements in Acre were captured and an Islamic emirate was declared in the State of Acre. By 1990 all of Acre province had fallen and the insurgency spread throughout much of the Amazon. After Fujimori was elected in Peru in 1990, Islamic militants crossed the border and began occupying towns in the sparsely populated province of Loreto. An Islamic uprising occured in Iquitos and an emirate was established in Loreto, affiliated with the Islamic Emirate of Acre.