COURT DECISIONS GUARANTEE THAT THE TERENA CAN REMAIN IN THE CACHOEIRINHA INDIGENOUS LAND

 

The Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPF) in Mato Grosso do Sul has obtained a decision from the Federal Regional Court (TRF) which suspends the temporary repossession orders and guarantees the Terena people the right to remain in part of the Cachoeirinha indigenous land, situated in the municipality of Miranda (MS).

 

The area, which is part of the Terena people’s traditional territory, as has been recognized in an anthropological study carried out by the National Foundation for Indigenous People (Funai), was repossessed on 28 November 2005, when the indigenous people, motivated by the demarcation process having ground to a standstill, and by the shortage of land intended for the community’s productive activities, decided to occupy it.

 

As a consequence of this action, the ranchers Jorge Ferreira Gonçalves and João Proença de Queiroz each filed a repossession suit, requesting a temporary injunction and obtained decisions, in the 1st instance, which determined that the indigenous community was to withdraw from the reoccupied area. These injunctions were suspended at the request of the MPF in Mato Grosso do Sul.

 

According to the MPF-MS staff, the federal judge, Higino Cinacchi, summoned from the TRF 3rd Region maintained that, in cases like these, there was no call for a temporary injunction based on “pure application of the Civil Code,” and because it is necessary to use constitutional law, since the land in question is tied in with an administrative demarcation process. “What can be seen as being under discussion here, and which may be guaranteed, on repossession, to be ownership of private property, cannot however be the object of a temporary injunction, since the existence of an administrative process at the institutions responsible, even though it is incomplete, transfers the question from the civil rights protection sphere to that of constitutional law,” he claimed in his decision.

 

The indigenous people have asked Funai for seeds, machines and diesel oil to intensify the planting of foodstuff in the repossessed area where, according to the leader Ramon Terena, around 800 people live. “We want to plant 200 hectares with crops in order to escape from this situation of not having any way of producing,” the leader said. They have also demanded the presence of vehicles for transporting the sick and goods.

 

PATAXÓ HÃ-HÃ-HÃE PEOPLE REOCCUPY LANDS TO PREVENT THEIR REPOSSESSION

 

Since 23 January the Pataxó Hã-Hã-Hãe people have occupied eight repossessed ranches in the municipality of Itaju do Colônia, in the South of Bahia. This mobilization was started in reaction to an announcement, by the Federal Police, of compliance with the temporary land repossession order for two ranches that were repossessed in October last year. The Federal Court decision which allows for eviction was taken in December 2005. The indigenous people have also been trying to use legal means to suspend this order but on Wednesday, 1 February, the TRF in Brasília upheld the decision taken in the 1st instance.

 

A Military Police officer told Funai that the indigenous people were programmed to be evicted from the ranches repossessed in 2005 on February 10. Furthermore, three of the eight ranches occupied last week have already been the object of court decisions which can soon be transformed into repossessions, because the lands are the object of legal protection measures petitioned by the ranchers, who had already foreseen the possibility of occupation.

 

Pataxó leaders were in Brasília this week and got Funai to commit to a meeting with the presence of the Institution’s Director for Land Issues, Artur Nobre Mendes, a federal judge, Pedro Holiday, ranchers, attorneys and the local Funai administrators. The meeting will be held on Friday, February 3, in Ilhéus, with the prospects of coming to an agreement between the indigenous people and the ranchers through the payment compensation for improvements, which may make it feasible for the occupants to leave the indigenous land.

 

In parallel, another group of indigenous people have been in the city of Salvador this week, demonstrating and visiting public institutions and universities with the aim of drawing attention to their situation and sensitizing the population to the land dispute question.

 

In the early hours of 1 February, a car transporting men and a woman, who had been stung by a scorpion, to the city of Itaju da Colônia, was stopped by gunshots. Nobody was hurt. In view of the threats, the indigenous people say that they are willing to bring down an energy distribution tower which runs through the indigenous land.

 

Cimi missionaries are worried about the health of around 600 people who take part in the repossessions, because they are camped in pastures, where there is very little native vegetation and no drinking water. “During the day, the scalding heat obliges them to consume the water from  a small stream which, besides polluted, consists of brackish water and is the same as that used for cattle consumption. It is, therefore, unsuitable for human consumption. Several diseases have already appeared amongst them,” says Haroldo Heleno, a Cimi missionsry. “The Funasa medical team has refused to attend the indigenous people there, arguing that it is a conflict zone. The situation is very serious and we are in contact with the Funasa District Sanitation Office in Salvador, trying to come to an agreement,” he completed.

 

Context – The Pataxó Hã-Hã-Hãe land was demarcated in 1937 by the Indigenous People’s Protection Service (SPI), which was, at the time, the official institution for dealing with indigenous people. From the 1940s on, the very same SPI started the illegal process of leasing out the indigenous lands which culminated, in 1976, with the deeds to these lands being handed to the ranchers by the Government of the State of Bahia. In 1982, the Pataxó got organized and started to take back the lands that had been invaded. In the same year, Funai asked the Federal Supreme Court (STF) to declare the deeds that had been issued by the State of Bahia, null and void. Since that time, 24 years ago, the Hã-Hã-Hãe have been waiting for the STF to judge their case so that they can go back to living on their lands.

 

Brasília, 2 February 2006.

 

Cimi – Indianist Missionary Council