Public hearing debates desperate situation of Guarani-Kaiowá
Discussion of conflicts and violence suffered by indigenous Guarani-Kaiowá of Mato Grosso do Sul(MS).
This was the objective of the public hearing [originally] proposed by Senator Marina Silva, which occurred Tuesday morning, March 23, in the Human Rights Commission of the Brazilian Federal Senate.
Senators Marina Silva and Cristovão Buarque presided over the debate, which highlighted the importance of the event to denounce the situation of neglect in which the indigenous peoples of MS live. Also participating in the discussions were representatives of the BNDES Bank (National Bank of Economic and Social Development), Agrarian Development and Rural Extension Agency of the government of Mato Grosso do Sul, the Office of the Federal Prosecutor (MPF-Ministério Público Federal), the Justice Dept. in MS and representatives of the Guarani-Kaiowá.
Now confirmed in the state is the true omission of the Federal and State governments regarding the situation of the Guarani-Kaiowá. All and every type of service to this people is not functioning as it should. Several extended family groups are living camped under tarpaulins and in flooded areas at the sides of roads. Many children are still dying from malnutrition. Others do not study because they have no access to schools and school transport when they live far from the campuses.
Such violations of rights were, once again, verified by the Indigenist Missionary Council (CIMI), which visited indigenous communities in the region this past week. In a Public Statement, the Council affirmed that “there will only be justice, democracy and fraternity when the rights of all are assured, when the plurality of the peoples are respected as a wealth and the land returned to being a space for living and not just a commodity or object of production for the enrichment of some”.
Restatement of the forms of violence
The prosecutor of the MPF in Dourados, Dr. Marco Antônio Delfino de Almeida, presented for plenary session the extremely grave and inhuman situation to which the Guarani-Kaiowá are being submitted. Documented within this is the failure by the public security sector to respond to the solicitations of the indigenous peoples. “The Guarani have no access [normally] assured to any citizen. A situation of prejudice, unacceptable, seeing that other agencies of the Federal Government, like the Caixa Econômica and Bank of Brazil answer immediately when the number “910” is called for emergency help”, he said.
He further emphasized the discrimination and persecution of the indigenous peoples, as well as explicit cases of racism, the high indices of violence, homicide and suicide, not to mention government assistance programs that give no voice to the indigenous peoples in the planning of the grand construction projects or social programs. “Haiti is here! The Guarani do not receive the same treatment dispensed by the federal Government to the Haitians! It is necessary that the indigenous question in the nation be prioritized” he stated.
“There is nothing more degrading and humiliating for the indigenous than to receive basic food baskets. Land is needed to produce and provide self-sufficiency for their family. The treatment dispensed to them is also a form of violence”, he said. The prosecutor further pressed the issue of the necessity of resolving the question of land, which is being taken by large soy and sugar cane fields or by factory plants, which is an obstacle to the occupation of the traditional lands of which are theirs by law.
According to anthropologist Rubens Tomás de Alemeida, Brazil cannot forget the 45 thousand Guarani-Kaiowá and Ñhandeva who live in the extreme south of Mato Grosso do Sul. “Neither can we forget their problems with food, malnutrition, violence and other rights violations. Basic food baskets do not resolve these problems”. He stated. He further added that the priorities for the Guarani-Kaiowá of Mato Grosso do Sulare the land and the establishing of plantings that provide self-sufficiency for their families and not government assistance.
For Almeida the movement for land will end only when anthropological studies are carried out, recognizing the traditional lands and their return to the indigenous communities. He further emphasizes that the only way to resolve the question is through dialogue and negotiation between the indigenous peoples, the producers and the state. Discussions that need to occur with all in the large Aty Guassú (indigenous assemblies) and not only with the leaderships. In addition to this, public policies are needed that guarantee efficient, continuous and well planned attention to these peoples”, he said.
Indigenous representatives
Indigenous representatives participated in the public hearing and were able to express with vehemence the reality in which their peoples live. Anastásio Peralta Kaiowá, highlighted the importance of the land for the Guarani-Kaiowá so that they have autonomy and self-sufficiency. “For more than 500 years the thinking has continued to be essentially: to exploit the indian and the land as source of profit. We are treated like animals fed rations (basic food baskets)”, he declared.
The representative for the APIB (Articulation of the Indigenous Peoples of Brazil), Rosana Kaingang, spoke emphatically about the actions of the State and of the Federal Police, citing the innumerable cases of criminalization of leaders of the indigenous movement in the country. “If Brazil were in fact a democratic nation of the people, it would not be imprisoning our leaders, violating our rights and placing the National Foorce(s) and the Federal Police over us, for invading our homes in the middle of the night and apprehending fathers of the family”, she stated.
She still demands provisions from President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and questions the purpose of the attacks on the struggle of the peoples. “We are tired of sending documents to Brasília, of making denunciations that never have solutions. We do not have [solutions] because we are being intimidated by national security bodies , which prevent our entry including into the FUNAI headquarters here in Brasília”, she said
Related information:
Report of Survival International on Guarani Kaiowá sent to United Nations
The document produced by Survival International and sent to the United Nations (UN) last week reports on many of the violations mentioned during the public hearing. The report concludes that the situation of the indigenous peoples in Mato Grosso do Sul is the worst all the indigenous peoples in the Americas.
According to the SI report the non-recognition of the traditional lands of the Guarani indigenous people is the primary cause of the problems faced by this people, in addition to explicitly clarifying that the expansion of the sugar cane plantation for the production of ethanol will increasingly result in the Guarani losing more land, which will aggravate the conflicts
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Bishop Conference visits Guarani Kaiowa (March 19 and 20)
Photo series of General Secretary Bishop Dimas Lara Barbosa of the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil receiving documents, and hearing depositions and statements from the Guarani-Kaiowá in Mato Grosso do Sul.
The Indigenist Missionary Council produced a banner to make their solidarity explicit reading: OUR SOLIDARITY and SUPPORT to the KAIOWA-GUARANI PEOPLE OF MS.
CNBB calls for reform of the state
On March 11, 2010, The National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CNBB) called for urgent changes. In the press conference, CNBB President Dom Geraldo Lyrio Rocha and Vice-President Dom Luis Vieira presented the new document noting: “The current system is concentrative and exclusionary. It is necessary that we find a model of social inclusion”. Responding to reporters questions about revelations of corruption in the capital: “The fact exposes in a somewhat emblematic manner the fragility of the current system” (…) “The reform of the State is urgent so that situations like this are not repeated”
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