MOVEMENTS UNITE AROUND THE RESISTANCE OF THE GUARANI PEOPLE

 

250 years ago, there was a battle in the South of Brazil between the indigenous members of the Guarani people, who lived in the Jesuit missions, and the Spanish and Portuguese armies. Whilst the empires were looking to redivide the colonies in accordance with their interests, the people who lived there were fighting to carry on living in their ancestral lands. In the battle of 7 February 1756, the indigenous leader Sepé Tiaraju was killed. Three days later, another 1500 Guarani were assassinated. The story of the resistance of the Guarani was the inspiration for 4,000 people to meet and debate their situation at the present time, where the empires may be different, but they still exist.

 

In parallel activities, the indigenous people held the first Continental Assembly of the Guarani People and, just like the Negro slaves, discussed their right to land. The young dealt with the experience of the missions, the difficulty of retaining the peasant culture with increasing poverty and migration to the cities. They also spoke about the world of work and the difficulties of getting prepared for it, because of the lack of access to quality education. The Peasants’ Movement has carried out research on Sepé. The groups were camped in the city of São Gabriel, Rio Grande do Sul, for four days. There were more than a thousand Guarani from Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina, as well as 200 indigenous members of peoples from the South and Northeast of the country.

 

If the Guarani’s resistance comes from the past, the Continental Assembly proves that it continues strong to this day, because this people continues to live in its own way. This can be heard in the speeches – in the Guarani language – and in the way in which these peoples discuss things, and seen in the treatment of the hundreds of children that had been brought to the meeting, and in the prayers and dances. “Our resistance comes from the political systems that we have, our way of electing authorities, our rites, our form of expression. We have faith and force in spirituality and in this group of things. Times have changed with the advance of technology, and with globalization, but the origin is still here. If we don’t lose our memory, we will be strong, and if we are strong, we will be able to resist”, said the chief Duarte Sose Catri, from Paraguay, on being asked about his people’s capacity to resist. And he finished off: “The white men do not give us space, but we have to search for this space ourselves, to move forward. Those white men, who want to help, can do so. Not for us, but with us”.

 

The land question is central to this people’s struggle. In the province of Missiones, Argentina, only 25% of the 70 Guarani communities have land ownership deeds, and only five of them have enough land. In Paraguay, only a third of the indigenous lands are recognized by the State. Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, where 35,000 Guarani live, has the lowest average demarcated area per indigenous person. If we divide the number of hectares demarcated and in the possession of the communities by the number of Guarani, each indigenous person lives in less than one hectare. “We see our lives being spent in this struggle for land”, Léia Aquino, from Mato Grosso do Sul commented.

 

“It was important to realize that the struggle is no different from one country to the next”, said Leonardo Guarani, from Santa Catarina. Due to the fact that the lands inhabited by the Guarani have fertile soil and are rich in wood, they have been occupied since the colonization process began. Cast out of their lands, the Guarani have concentrated in small areas of forest. During this process, which in Brazil started from the Atlantic coast, many indigenous people migrated to the interior of the country, towards the Western borders. In Paraguay, The colonization process was slower than here, and the lands situated in Argentina were occupied in the 18th century, at the time of the missions, but were only exploited again after the 1st World War. A large part of the Guarani lives near the borders.

 

And it has been in these regions where, over the last decade, the lands where this people still managed to live have been taken over by soy plantations. As well as the environmental problems, land devastation brings cultural consequences, because, from the Guarani point of view, all the beings born on the land are alive and if the land is destroyed, this population will find it difficult to find a meaning for life in this environment.

 

Another common problem is the creation of conservation units in the places where the Guarani live, because these are places where there are original forests. There are several cases where the indigenous people are access to the parks is denied or which has become a reason for dispute. An example in Brazil is the Morro do Osso Municipal Park in the city of Porto Alegre, which is land, claimed by the Guarani. The problem is repeated in Argentina. “Communities that are inside the Yabuti Biosphere Reserve, in the province of Missiones, suffer from indiscriminate deforestation and the theft of wood. The reserve, created by Unesco, occupies 250,000 hectares, includes the last remaining areas of the Paranaense Forest [similar to the Atlantic Forest] on Earth. There are nine indigenous communities in the biosphere reserve, but the majority of the land is owned by timber companies, because the Argentinean State allows this type of reserve to be exploited”, Maria Josefa Ramirez, from the Argentine catholic indigenous organization (Endepa) reported.

 

“One of the big challenges in Brazil is that the indigenous people, when they manage to get access to the land, return to lands that have been totally degraded”, said Mario de Oliveira, of the Indianist Missionary Council. The construction of hydroelectric power plants is also a common threat. They directly and indirectly affect the indigenous communities, destroying the fish, medicine and lands.

 

INDIGENOUS PEOPLE BLOCKADE THE CARAJÁS RAILROAD, IN MARANHÃO, IN PROTEST AGAINST FUNASA

 

Four employees of the Vale do Rio Doce Company, who had been taken hostage by indigenous people from the Krikati, Gavião, Awa-Guajá and Guajajara people, in Maranhão, were released today, 9 February. On Tuesday, 7 February, the indigenous people blockaded the Carajás Railroad between the villages of Poeira and Três Bocas in the municipality of Alto Alegre do Pindaré, in order that their protests against the National Health Foundation (Funasa), would be heard. They are protesting against the holding of the 3rd District Conference on Indigenous People’s Health, which has not respected the preparatory stages laid down in the law. They also question Funasa’s unilateral decision to sign a contract with the NGO Caiová Evangelical Mission to look after the health of the indigenous people in the state, and consider this as treating the indigenous people in Maranhão negligently. This has already resulted in the death of five children, in the Bananal indigenous area, during only the first few days of this year. The indigenous people say that nowadays the resources are being poorly administered, bureaucracy has increased and access to medicines is difficult.

 

According to the Funasa press office, a meeting to start up negotiations is programmed for tomorrow, 10 February. The institution has announced that it is “decentralizing the indigenous health actions of the Special Indigenous Peoples’ Sanitary District (DSEI) of Maranhão to guarantee autonomy and speed for health actions. This measure has been taken in response to a request made by the indigenous people themselves, on 7 November last year, in Brasília”. Funasa has nominated an employee to make administrative changes at the DSEI Maranhão and to set up a working party with the aim of structuring the DSEI with 180 days to finish the job.

 

The indigenous people decided to blockade the railroad after Funasa had not turned up to a meeting that it had confirmed it would take part in. This meeting was scheduled for 25 January. 250 indigenous leaders were waiting there

 

AGREEMENT POSTPONES REPOSSESSION ACTION AGAINST THE PATAXÓ HÃ-HÃ-HÃE, IN BAHIA

 

Leader of the Pataxó Hã-Hã-Hãe people and ranchers have agreed to ask the Federal and Military Police to postpone compliance with the court order that determines repossession of the lands taken by the indigenous people in the South of Bahia, until 17 February.

 

The area that was retaken is part of the Caramuru-Catarina-Paraguassú land, which has already been recognized as indigenous, but which continues to be controlled by ranchers whilst a process to annul the ranch ownership deeds has been slowly making its way through the Superior Court of Justice (STF) for the last 23 years. The indigenous people have agreed to remove the timber from the electric energy transmission tower situated in the retaken area.

 

At the meeting, held last Friday, 3 February, in Ilhéus, Bahia, it was also agreed that state and federal deputies, indigenous leaders, the National Foundation for Indigenous People (Funai) and the Office of the Federal Attorney General would take steps to ensure that the STF gave its decision on the deed annulment action in question by 17 February.

 

On the same day, Funai started negotiations with ranchers for the payment of compensation for the improvements built on the indigenous land, which may accelerate the ranchers’ departure. Nevertheless, there is information that gunmen continue in the Itaju do Colônia region and continue shooting to frighten the indigenous people. This has contributed to the climate of tension in the region.

 

Brasília, 9 February 2006.

 

Cimi – Indianist Missionary Council