In an article published by the Reuters news agency, the president of Funai, Mércio Pereira Gomes, issued statements questioning the rights of indigenous people to the lands that they have traditionally occupied. “It’s too much land. Up to now, there have been no limits to their land claims, but we are reaching a point where the Federal Supreme Court will have to set a limit ,” said Gomes.

 

It is the opinion of the Indianist Missionary Council (Cimi), that it is amazing that a Funai president should echo the words of those who want to impose limits on indigenous lands in the country, because this is one of the old demands made by the sectors that are opposed to indigenous groups. “This goes to show that Mércio Gomes and the Lula government are tied in with agribusiness and the old rural oligarchies in the country,” states Saulo Feitosa, Cimi vice president. Feitosa remembers that there is a proposed constitutional amendment in the Federal Senate that aims to limit the extension of indigenous lands in each Brazilian state. This has been proposed by Senator Mozarildo Cavalcanti, who has historically acted to oppose the demarcation of indigenous lands.

 

In Funai’s defense, Gomes also said that “Brazil should be mentioned as an example to other countries. We have taken indigenous lands back from farmers who have been there for two generations. Who else does this?”, whilst ignoring the original rights of indigenous people to the lands that they have traditionally occupied, and which are guaranteed by the 1988 Federal Constitution.

 

Gomes’s statements were made in the context of the repercussions of the data published by Cimi last Thursday, which showed that 38 indigenous people were murdered in 2005, making it the year with the highest number for the last decade.

 

“Cimi claims that is the sluggishness of the Brazilian State in indigenous land recognition and protection processes which is the primary cause of the violence that indigenous people are forced to live with. One of the clearest examples of this connection is the confined situation of the Guarani people. For them, and for many other peoples, phrases like “too much land” don’t make any sense,” said Saulo Feitosa.

 

Ten thousand indigenous Guarani people live confined to an area of 3,475 hectares in the Jaguapiru and Bororo settlements, near to the city of Dourados, Mato Grosso do Sul. A large part of these people do not have anywhere to plant crops and there is no work available in the soy plantations or cattle ranches that surround the area. These ranches were, in many cases, built on the lands where indigenous people used to live. In view of their situation, many men are obliged to work in sugar cane processing plants, in conditions akin to slavery, where they are exposed to alcohol and prostitution. The lack of prospects and the confinement have led to a situation of tension, alcoholism and high suicide levels and a clearly violent environment. “It is not possible to separate this situation from the situation of not having any land,” said Feitosa.

 

GUARANI PEOPLE HOLD DEMONSTRATION IN DOURADOS

 

Yesterday (12 January), around 700 Guarani people, coming from 10 settlements in Mato Grosso do Sul held a demonstration in Dourados, 221 km from Campo Grande, for an end to the violence, and the punishment of the murderers of Dorival Benitez, who was killed during repossession of the Sombrerito land, on 26 June 2005, and of Dorvalino Rocha, 39 years old, murdered on Christmas Eve, at the place where the Guarani from the Nhande Ru Marangatu land have been camped since they were evicted from their ratified land. The other complaint was connected to the demarcation of the lands of the Guarani in Mato Grosso do Sul.

 

The demonstration started off in the morning in a square in Dourados, where indigenous people from distant settlements who had come by bus and around three hundred indigenous people from the Jaguapiru and Bororo settelments, which are near Dourados, gathered together. Next, the procession went to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, where a letter was delivered to the Attorney General of Brazil, Dr. Charles Motta Pessoa, thanking him for his work in defending the rights of indigenous people. Part of the group then continued to the Federal Court building, where they had a meeting with the judge Roberto Pollini, who had decided about the eviction of the group from Nhande Ru Marangatu. According to the Cimi team in MS, the judge undertook to do what was necessary for inspections to be carried out in the Sucuri´y lands in Nhande Ru Marangatu to analyze the compensation costs of the improvements.

 

Brasília, 12 January 2005.

 

Cimi – Indianist Missionary Council