Newsletter n. 752
INDIGENOUS PEOPLES PERFORM RITUALS IN MEMORY OF THE DEATH OF SEPÉ TIARAJU AND ADVANCE IN FORMING A CONTINENTAL COALITION
This Wednesday, about 250 Kaingang, Guarani and Charrua indigenous people performed rituals in memory of the death of Sepé Tiaraju 251 years ago on February 7 in São Gabriel, state of Rio Grande do Sul. They performed rituals in Sanga da Bica, where the Guarani leader died, and Coxilha do Caiboaté, where 1500 Guarani were murdered by Portuguese and Spanish troops on February 10, 1756. In the afternoon, the group visited a camp of the Landless Movement (MST) next to the Southall farm and showed solidarity to the almost 300 families camped there to press for the area to be expropriated.
Attended by indigenous communities from Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, and Argentina, the gathering strengthens the continental struggle of the Guarani people and contributes toward organizing their struggle for a land of their own. The Kainkang and Charrua also reaffirmed that they will carry out joint actions for the purpose of reoccupying their lands.
Evergelino Nascimento, the vice-chief of the Kaigang who lives in an indigenous reservation in Lajeado, was deeply touched when he visited the location where the indigenous people died fighting for their land. Evergelino was born in a reservation in the city of Nonoai, but he said that he left the place because of its precarious physical and basic sanitation framework.
“I was thinking to myself that when Sepé was here this place was a forest, that perhaps there was a pine tree here, there was game, all kinds of animals. And now all we see is a farm without a single pine tree. This is why Sepé was butchered, for defending his culture, his forest,” he said.
There are ten indigenous camps alongside highways in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. Altogether, there are about 25 Guarani communities in the State, most of which concentrated in the Larger Porto Alegre area and on the shore. The Kaingang also have about 20 communities mainly located in north region of the State. The Charrua da Capital community is fighting today for 10 hectares of land in the city, but there are other members of this community in the region of Bagé. (Raquel Casiragui, Chasque Agency, state of Rio Grande do Sul)
Non-distribution of basic food baskets starveS indigenous people in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul. Movements stage demonstration
Since the beginning of the year, about 110,000 families have not been receiving basic food baskets in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, including 8,000 indigenous families. Because they have no land to grow food crops, these food baskets are the main source of food for most of this population. To protest against this measure taken by André Puccinelli (Party of the Brazilian Democratic Movement), the new governor of the state, the Coordination of Social Movements (CMS), the Regional West Office 1 of the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CNBB) and indigenous leaders will be staging demonstrations today (February 8) in Campo Grande, capital of the state.
At the Legislative Assembly of Mato Grosso do Sul, indigenous leaders reported the evil consequences of suspending the distribution of the food baskets, which range from starving children to affecting their health.
Speeches were made by representatives of unions and social movements, a representative of Guarani teachers, and Eliseu Guarani, from Kurusu Ambá, a tekohá (traditional land) where the problems caused by the lack of food are aggravated by the recent eviction of Guarani from it by private militia after the land was reoccupied by them. The 70 families that were evicted from the land are now camped alongside a highway and depend on the distribution of basic food baskets to have anything to eat. Seven representatives attended the meeting.
Before the audience, the demonstrators were prevented from accessing the Parque dos Poderes area, where the head offices of different state agencies are located. They were only allowed to enter the area after representatives intervened.
At the headquarters of the state government, the demonstrators were received by the state secretaries for Social Security and Justice and Safety. Both of them tried to explain that the distribution of basic food baskets had been suspended because of cuts in the state budget caused by the late payment of an installment of the state debt with the Federal Government, and they did not suggest in any way that the governor would review his decision. However, even before the governor was sworn into office he had announced the cut.
Governor André Puccinelli went to Brasília today to have meetings with the minister of Social Development and Hunger Combat, Patrus Ananias, and with representatives of Funai and other agencies to ask the federal government to take on the task of distributing the food baskets.
The group sent a letter to the governor asking him to do something about problems caused by the lack of land for indigenous people in the state also. “We need to have appropriate channels to propose structural solutions for the hunger problem. The state of Mato Grosso do Sul is also responsible, because it was this state that granted to farmers title deeds to lands where indigenous people lived,” said Egon Heck, coordinator of the Cimi office in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul.
Campaign will continue to hold activities until Friday
These activities will mark the end of the campaign against hunger and violence in rural areas in solidarity toward the Kaiowá Guarani people who live in the Kurusu Ambá indigenous land. In front of the headquarters of the state government, two tons of donated clothes and food products will be delivered to Kaiowá Guarani leaders from the Kurusu Ambá area.
From there, the group will go to the municipality of Dourados, where food products donated by members of the Landless Movement will be collected also. They will be delivered at the Kurusu Ambá area on the 9th in the morning. After they are delivered, a demonstration will be staged on the streets of the municipality of Amambai.
