– Potiguara people repossess lands invaded by sugar cane mill owners, in Paraíba

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YOUNG BORORO IS KILLED IN THE JARUDÓRI LAND, IN MATO GROSSO

At 10:00 last Saturday night (17 March), Helenildo Bataru Egiri, a 20-year-old member of the indigenous Bororo people, answered the door to some unknown men who were asking for water. When he gave them the water, he was shot three times at point blank range and killed by the men, who were in a taxi.

His family has never left the Bororo people’s 4,706-hectare Jarudóri indigenous land, which was invaded in the 1950s and which has been the object of a public civil action since July 2006. A Bororo group opened a new settlement in the area in June 2006, and ever since then there have been threats and attempted homicides.

History

The Jarudóri land, in the municipality of Poxoréu, MT, has been registered for more than 50 years, but is still occupied by non-indigenous people. The Salesian missionaries who operate in the region have been suffering pressure and threats, especially where their work with the Bororo people in the Jarudóri land is concerned.

On 5 December 2006, the Attorney General’s Office in Cuiabá received reports of several death threats that land grabbers had made against the group of the Bororo chief, Maria Aparecida Toro Ekureudo. In the early hours of 26 December, her son-in-law, João Osmar (“Gaúcho”), was the victim of a murder attempt and his truck was set on fire as he was leaving the indigenous land. He was treated, in a state of shock, at the Primavera do Leste First Aid Center and the Indigenous People’s Health Center in Cuiabá, before being transferred to a safer place.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office has insistently petitioned for an inquiry, and one was finally opened on 9 January 2007 (No. 3-004/2007). The local branch of Funai has oriented the Federal Police Chief that this enquiry does not fall within the Federal Police’s remit, because there were no indigenous victims.

POTIGUARA PEOPLE REPOSSESS LANDS INVADED BY MILL OWNERS, IN PARAÍBA

Tired of waiting for the demarcation of their lands, the Potiguara, in the municipality of Rio Tinto, Paraíba, repossessed part of their land, which had been invaded by a sugar cane mill. The area used to be occupied by the Rafaela Ranch.

Around 50 families – 150 people – have been camped out since 19 March and are working on building houses and farming the land. Repossession began at the start of February, without any human occupation. The indigenous people tore up the sugar cane and planted food crops such as beans, cassava, yams, corn and vegetables. This Tuesday morning, 20 March, the first house was concluded.

A land repossession order has already been issued, but the situation there is calm.

In August 2003, the Potiguara repossessed the land then occupied by the Japungu mill, after the mill owners had tried to drive a tractor over the people’s farmland to increase the area for planting sugar cane. Since the repossession, the Potiguara have been living and producing food in the area.

Ever since the 1970s, the Potiguara lands have been invaded by plantations of sugar cane, which is used in the production of ethanol and sugar by the mills that have been set up in the region, as a result of the incentives offered by the Próalcool program. At that time, along with promises of employment, the mills brought deforestation, a reduction in the area of farmland, and the poisoning of the mangrove swamps where the community used collect shellfish and crabs to eat and sell.

The Potiguara land lies in the municipalities of Rio Tinto, Marcação and Baia da Traição. The demarcation of some parts of this people’s land (the Jacaré de São Domingos and Potiguara lands) has already been concluded. The Potiguara de Monte Mor land, occupying 7,487 hectares, has been identified, but is still the object of legal disputes.

This repossession has been consolidated in the same week that President Lula – who has presented biodiesel as a new major product for the country to export – called the sugar cane producers “heroes”. “The cane mill owners, who ten years ago, were considered the agribusiness bandits in this country, are turning into national and worldwide heroes because the world has its eye on the ethanol”, the President said during the inauguration of an industry in Goiás.

Brasília, 22 March 2007

Cimi – Indianist Missionary Council

www.cimi.org.br