Biography

KAPAX

In the year of 1976 a man called Alberto Lesmes Rojas, swam a distance of 800 miles in the Magdalena river (of Neiva to Barranquilla), for the overwhelmed surprise of the Colombians and the world. He have swam in the Magdalena, the Amazon, the Putumayo rivers. Lesmes is known as Kapax or the “ Tarzan criollo” of the amazonas.

This man who was born in Puero Leguízamo, Putumayo, son of a German and an indigena woman, has been living in Leticia, Amazonas for more than 30 years, he has dedicated his life to protect, to take care of ,and to defend the nature.

At the present time, Kapax works for the governation of the amazonas as guide tourist , so the ones who travel to know this beautiful earth, they are welcome by a strong character, who has no fear to hang in his neck an Anaconda of great size or to face crocodiles or dangerous animals that live, like him in the Colombian forest.

His fame is so huge, that a team of producers of the Geo&Geo program, of the Italian public television, decided to dedicate a documentary to him of one hour, titled The Last Tarzan and who according to its creators, “ is a tribute to that Colombian character, who armed just with a simple machete and strong muscles, travel on a canoe with an Italian young woman his wife and two childs inside of the secrets of the forest ”. The films, made by a team of six people was seen in Raitré channel three of the Radio and Public Television Italian RAI.

CHICO MENDES

Martyred activist Chico Mendes (1944-1988) devoted much of his life to bring literacy to the natives of the Amazon jungle, and was the guiding force behind the movement to organize the laborers of the rubber plantations in the South American rainforest. He alerted the world to the danger of ongoing deforestation in the Amazon jungle.

Francisco "Chico" Mendes was a native of the Amazon rubber plantations and a rubber tapper by trade. As an adolescent he developed a keen awareness of the injustice imposed on his family and his community by wealthy rubber barons who owned the rainforest lands. Despite a stringent ban against education for the rubber workers, Mendes learned to read and spent much of his life in sharing that knowledge with other members of his community.

He organized the plantation workers into labor unions, and brought their cause to the attention of the entire world when cattle ranchers--at the invitation of the Amazonian government--began a systematic deforestation of the precious rainforest lands that contribute a critical function in stabilizing the world climate.