Article by Dom Redovino Rizzardo – Bishop de Dourados

 

On the morning of Monday, Sept. 22, I returned from pastoral work in the villages of Sete Quedas, Tacuru and Paranhos, in the extreme south of the Diocese of Dourados. At the crossroads to the Limão Verde village, inhabited by the Kaiowá Guarani, in the proximity of Amambai, I noticed two contrasting realities. Initially with joy, seeing what was being constructed, by the state government, innumerable homes for people, simple but beautiful, replacing the former shacks. Continuing, however, in the direction of the city, I came upon a long caravan of indigenous people who, on bicycle, cart or foot, were heading to the urban center, seeking God knows what.

 

If someone asked me what nexus links one to the other, I would respond that the solution to the indigenous problem in our region is not limited to possession of land. In fact, on this same trip, I drove to Paranhos, passing one village where I would say the indigenous people have land sufficient for their necessities. In the majority of properties that surround the new houses of Limão Verde, no cultivation is seen, nor is there manioc which is a plant typical to indigenous culture. I concluded that, apart from land and a place to live, the indigenous peoples need schools, hospitals, employment and even political engagement, to not prolong an indignant dependency of the human being.

 

Upon arriving in Dourados, after three days of absence, I knew that on the morning of Saturday Sept 18, a group of heavily armed men had invaded a Guarani-Kaiowá encampment situated at the side of BR-463, destroying and burning their temporary housing and injuring some of the inhabitants. The crime proves the renewed climate of war existing in the region, where the culprits, because invaders and intruders, are always the indigenous peoples, even if unarmed and injured, while the security forces are doing nothing more than their duty…

 

The fact brought to mind the sad story of the wolf and the lamb in the famous fable by Aesop*. Not infrequently, the justice that reigns in Brazil is the law of the strongest, especially if it is protected by economic power. Because of this, considering the neglect, the omission, the violence and the inhuman conditions in which the indigenous peoples are crushed, I find myself asking if, behind the scenes, whether there does not exist a deliberate and subtle policy for extermination of a people, that is considered an impediment to the progress of our state…

 

Why does the Federal Government procrastinate to the Greek Calends** a solution to a problem that grows with every day that passes? It can talk about a lack of resources for the demarcation – or better yet, given the complexity of the measure, including the ambiguity of the also decreed “ancestral territories”, – for the purchase of properties for farmers disposed to sell them? And why not take a second look at the innumerable devolved lands existing in the state? There are funds for all of this: for loaning 10 billion dollars to the FMI, for budgeting R$32 billion to purchase war planes from France and to contract, from 2003 to the present, 160,000 public employees, with a salary cost that, in 2009, exceeds 153 billion Reals. It is just that there exists no money to resolve the problem of the ‘indians’! Meanwhile the tension grows before our eyes, making the indigenous peoples and agriculturalists look like enemies.

 

Unfortunately, there is no lack of politicians and economists who cast to the four winds “it is a lot of land for a few indians”. In Mato Grosso do Sul there is found, however, the second largest indigenous population in Brazil, “much land” is an expression that can only be applied to a few hundred large landowners, 53.8% of these being residents of or originating in other states. Not, however, to the indigenous peoples. In fact, according to data recently released by IBGE, the concentration of land increased in Mato Grosso do Sul: while the properties of at least 10 hectares occupy 2.7% of the rural area, the fazendas with more than 1000 hectares cover 43% of the total area.

 

Perhaps it has been because of all of this that, on September 23, the Superior Tribunal de Justiça determined that the assassin of the Guarani- Kaiowá cacique Marcos Veron, murdered on January 13 of 2003, in Juti, be judged in São Paulo, instead of Mato Grosso do Sul. Justice minister Felix Fisher justified his vote stating that the crime occurred within a sad and regrettable context, resulting from a climate of animosity and tension in the state between farmers and indians, even further incentivized by public authorities and by a portion of the local press.

 

                                                                        *

 

* The Wolf and the Lamb – fable by Aesop

The Wolf encountered a Lamb drinking at a river and desired an excuse to attack him. He accused the Lamb of muddying the water and making it unfit to drink. The Lamb answered that he was drinking as he had been taught, barely touching the water with his lips; moreover, he did not see how he could possibly be bothering the Wolf, who was after all positioned upstream. The Wolf, a bit taken aback by this reply, tried another tack. “Last year you played a nasty trick on my father.” “But a year ago I was not even born!” protested the Lamb. The Wolf in turn exclaimed: “Well you may be a pretty slick talker, but I’m going to eat you just the same”.

 

** Greek Calends – meaning a day that never comes