Vicente Cañas

(October 22, 1939 – April 6, 1987) was a Spanish Christian missionary and Jesuit brother, born in Alborea, Albacete, who is credited with making the first peaceful contact with the Enawene Nawe Indian tribe in 1974.

In spite of receiving death threats from land owners and cattle ranchers, he successfully lobbied the Brazilian government for the territory to be officially granted for use by the Enawene Nawe tribe.

The Rio Preto (Adawina/Adowina) region has still not been demarcated, despite many years of work by the Enawene Nawe and a local indigenist NGO, OPAN (Operação Amazonia Nativa).

These threats are because of what Vicente (Kiwxi) saw all those years ago - colonisation of the state of Mato Grosso and Amazonia by soya monoculturalists led by the Maggi family.

Nineteen years after the murder of Vicente Cañas, the trial of those accused of killing him began in Cuiabá, capital of Mato Grosso state.