Newsletter n. 674
In this newsletter:
– Identification of Guarani do Araça´í land is stalled since March 2004
– Kaingang People reoccupy their land in the south region of the country
– Truká chief is transferred to his village
Identification of Guarani do Araça’í land is stalled since March 2004
Worried with the delay in the demarcation of the Guarani do Araça´í land, the Cimi team in Chapecó, state of Santa Catarina, sent a letter to the president of Funai, Mércio Pereira Gomes, requesting the publication of a report that identifies the land, which has been waiting for a decision of Gomes to be published since March 2004. According to the Brazilian law, Funai has a deadline of 15 days after approving the report to publish an abstract of it in the Official Gazette. The Guarani do Araça´i land is located in the state of Santa Catarina, south region of Brazil, in the municipalities of Saudades and Cunha Porã.
The Guarani do Araça´i people were expelled from their territory by corporations that settled other people in it in the mid-20th century. They reoccupied their lands in July 2000 and were successful in their efforts to have a working group set up to identify and define the bounds of the land in September of the same year. They were then violently expelled from it by federal and military police officers in October.
According to the regional Cimi office in Brazil’s south region, the report prepared by the working group is ready to be published since March 2004. Now the president of Funai has to make the official decision to publish. “In our opinion, there is no grounded explanation for such long delay to complete the demarcation process. You are well aware that this administrative decision is entirely up to you to make, and that all you have to do is simply sign it. So what is it that is making you so insensitive to the history of this people?”, the regional office asks.
As Cimi said before, the political scenario in the state of Santa Catarina is unfavorable to indigenous people. The governor of the state created a commission in 2004 with the agreement of the ministry of Justice to define demarcation actions in the state. The commission has been dealing with a subject that the state has no competency to address, since it is a federal issue, and it was clearly set up to prevent the demarcation of indigenous lands. The federal administration, with its policy of ensuring broad support to it in Congress through alliances with right-wing politicians, has been giving in to pressures from sectors which oppose the demarcation of indigenous lands.
In May of this year, a federal court in Chapecó demanded explanations from Funai on the situation in the Araça´ì land. The Legislative Assembly of the state of Santa Catarina passed an amendment to the State Constitution this year making it possible for the state to pay an indemnity to small farmers who occupy lands recognized as areas traditionally occupied by indigenous people in Santa Catarina in good faith for them to leave those lands. In Cimi’s opinion, these two situations will favor the continuity of the process of recognizing lands belonging to the Guarani people: “In our understanding, this decision ensures a legitimate right of non-indigenous people who occupy indigenous lands in good faith and will strongly contribute to ease the tension between them and indigenous people who, also legitimately, want to exercise their right to return to their traditional lands,” it says.
Kaingang People reoccupy THEIR land in the south region of the country
The Kaingang indigenous people from the Monte Caseros land, located in the municipalities of Muliterno and Ibiraiaras in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, reoccupied part of their traditional land in the wee hours of July 18.
The Kaingang want a working group to be set up to review the bounds of the area they occupy. According to the leaders of the movement, reoccupying the land is extremely important to improve the situation of approximately 90 families that today live in an area of about one thousand hectares.
The new camp is made up of approximately 50 families. In February 2002, a survey was carried out by the National Foundation for Indigenous People (Funai) in Monte Caseros and other areas of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, and it showed that the bounds of these areas must be reviewed, since they are too small to meet the needs of the families living in them. No measures have been taken by Funai in this regard so far. As a result, the Kaingang have been systematically reoccupying their lands in the north region of the state since 2004. Over 200 indigenous families reoccupied at least five areas.
All the families are camped next to highways, facing a fierce cold weather and the constant risk of being run over by passing vehicles.
Truká Chief is transferred to his village
Chief Aurivan dos Santos, known as Neguinho Truká, was transferred from a penitentiary in the city of Petrolina to a Funai indigenous station in the Truká village on the Assunção island, state of Pernambuco, on July 25. Neguinho will remain in his village until his trial begins, although he will not be allowed to enjoy full liberty.
The transfer decision was made by the deputy chief justice the Higher Court of Justice, Sálvio de Figueiredo Teixeira, on July 20.
According to Cimi’s legal advisors, it was an important decision because it sets a positive precedent in the application of the indigenous law in terms of penal execution by allowing indigenous people to serve sentences in areas near the Funai station, usually in their own villages.
Neguinho Truká, one of the most widely known indigenous leaders in Brazil, was surprised when he was arrested to testify as a witnesses in the trial for the murder of his brother and nephew, who were killed in the Truká village by military police officers from the state of Pernambuco on June 30. The arrest is politically biased, as it is part of an attempt to criminalize indigenous leaders who are fighting to have their rights ensured.
Tomorrow, the 28th, a mass will be held in the Truká land to mark the 30th day that has gone by since Aldenilson dos Santos, 38, and his son, Jorge dos Santos, 17, were murdered. The ceremony will be attended by at least 18 organizations linked to the National Human Rights Movement (MNDH) and indigenous leaders from all over the state of Pernambuco, as well as by the coordinators of the Association of Indigenous Peoples from the Northeast Region, Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo (Apoinme).
Brasília, 27 July 2005
Cimi – Indianist Missionary Council
