The Ambassador of the Netherlands, Mr. Kees Pieter Rade, paid a morning visit to the Guarani Kaiowá village Te’Yikue in the municipality of Caarapó (state of Mato Grosso do Sul). The visit is part of a regional meeting of Guarani Kaiowá leaders, a gathering in conjunction with the Campanha Povo Guarani – Grande Povo, organized for the occasion of International Human Rights Day.

 

Launch

The international site for the Campaign was launched. The site carries news and content about the Guarani People, their society, culture and their conjunctural challenges. It is managed by the Guarani communities in Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Bolivia.

 

Netherlands support and concern

The visit of Ambassador Rade marks the support and concern of the Netherlands with the sad reality in which the Kaiowá Guarani peoples live. They face the highest indices of social vulnerability in the country. Most notably are those of violence, homicide, infant mortality, malnutrition and confinement. The resistance to recognition of their constitutional rights and the negation of recognition and protection of their traditional territories are the cause of the breadth of human rights violations.

 

Violations

The indigenous leaders reported to the Ambassador the diverse cases of violence and murder in the region, including hearing the testimony of the family of Genivaldo and Rolindo Vera, indigenous teachers, dead and disappeared respectively, after a violent attack by private security forces in the Paranhos region. Family members asked Ambassador Rade to request that his country intervene together with the Brazilian government, so that the search for Rolindo Verá be continued and the aggressors be judged and sentenced. They further reported the reality and impacts of unbridled monoculture and livestock on the environment, indigenous society and their traditional lands, placing emphasis on the grave cases of human rights violations.

 

Instrument of Struggle

With traditional dance and canticles the Ambassador was able to learn a little of the Kiowá Guarani culture as well as participate in the launch of the new website of the Campaign. The site is considered a great victory and powerful instrument of struggle for the Guarani people. Indigenous and indigenist organizations of Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia and Argentina participate in the construction and administration of the site, which will publish content in Portuguese, Spanish and Guarani, bringing to the world the reality of the Guarani communities subjected to every type of violence and often times tendentious stories in the print and telecommunications media.

 

The site is a victory constructed and strengthened in the memory of those Guarani leaders, who in this Amerindian land gave their lives for the life of their People. It is this dream and hope of having their physical cultural survival guaranteed in their age-old territories.

 

  

Continental Meeting

The micro-regional meeting of the Campanha Povo Guarani – Grande Povo marks one more step in the process of continental articulation, strengthening and union of the Guarani people. Next month, in the city of Asuncion there will be a continental meeting of the campaign in continuing preparation for the III ENCONTRO CONTINENTAL DO POVO GUARANI planned for November of 2010, also in Asunción.