Today (20/01) shock troops of the federal police invaded by surprise the indigenous villages Córrego D´Ouro and Olho D´Agua of the Tupinikim and Guarani Indians. The villages are located in the city of Aracruz, in the state of Espirito Santo (east Brazil). At least nine Indians are injured.

 

About 120 men of the federal police had been mobilized to fulfill the eviction, they arrived with a helicopter, bombs and other weapons. According to eyewitnesses the indigenous leader Paulo Henrique Tupiniquim was taken into prison and machines of Aracruz Cellulose are destroying the houses of the Tupinikim and Guarani. It seems that both the indigenous villages already have been destroyed.

Aracruz Cellulose always announces that they are against the use of violence.

 

The threshold of ownership reintegration was given by federal judge Rogério Moreira Alves, on the 7th of December in 2005, but until now there has been no communication about it. So this eviction came as a complete surprise for the Indians and the involved organizations, and is in fact an illegal action.

 

The conflict between the indigenous people and Aracruz Cellulose exists already more then 15 years. In May 2005 the Indians reoccupied the areas that they themselves had demarcated. It is an area of 11,009-hectare that currently is in the hands of the company Aracruz Cellulose. These 11,009 hectares have already been identified by FUNAI and recognized as indigenous lands by the ex-Minister of Justice Íris Rezende, but were not included in the demarcation orders due to an unconstitutional agreement signed by the indigenous people after the leaders had suffered violent coercion. 

 

Source: Alert Against the Green Desert Movement/Espírito Santo

 

Cimi, Brasilia 20th of January 2006

www.cimi.org.br