The leader Valdemireide Zoromará, 42, of the Pareci people, was assassinated by gun shots on January 9, while fishing with her family, having already suffered threats due to the struggle to recuperate the land of her people in the region of Diamantino, Mato Grosso. The confessed assassin, Ismael Lima, was manager of the ranch of Sebastião de Assis, one of the ranchers who had entered into confrontation with the Pareci.

 

Valmireide was accompanied by 13 persons, among them, sons and the spouse, who was injured in the attack. Valdenir Amorim is in a hospital in Tangará da Serra, in serious condition. According to his son, Kleberson Zoromará, the father was shot in the head and the perspective is that he remains in serious condition.

 

Kleberson asserts that the assassin was accompanied by another man, who discreetly neared the indigenous and began to shoot. Valmireide was hit from the banks. According to information from Civil Police headquarters of Diamantino, investigating the case, Ismael asserted he was alone and that he fired at figures not knowing who the indigenous were. Kleberson, however, asserts that when they descended the dam he was seen by the assassin. The inquest is to be delivered to the Vara Criminal de Diamantino in the coming week.

 

The family of Valmireide hopes that the Judge resolves the case, and mourns the loss that will be felt by the six sons and to all the people. “She was a firm fighter, for this, for a long time, she was suffering various threats. She is going to be a great loss to our struggle”, affirms her cousin Maria Helena.

 

Leader sought

Indigenists and other leaderships from Mato Grosso also believe that the intention of the act was to kill Valereide, principal leader of the group, known to all in the region. In October 2008, during the debates on Socioeconomic and Ecological Zoning of Mato Grosso, Valireide reacted, incensed by a rancher that claimed there were no indigenous in the region of Diamantino. At the meeting, Valmireide’s daughter, Kelly Crisitina Zoromará said that her mother removed them from the village, taking them to Nova Marilândia, because they had been threatened with death, but that they were going to struggle for the land until the end.

 

“They wanted to eliminate a key person to fracture the struggle”, asserts the leader Rony Azoinayce, another Pareci leader. Rony, who is from another Pareci land (located 100km from Diamantino, recalls that the tension between the family of Valmireide and the ranchers of Diamantino were exacerbated about 10 years ago, the period of the first demarcation of the land Estação Pareci.

 

History

In 1996, the Ministry of Justice declared the land Estação Pareci, near the municipalities of Diamantino and Nova Marilândia, with 3,620 hectares. In February of 1999, the directive of declaration of the indigenous land was annulled, because it was not in accord with the rules of Decree 1.775, which regulates the process of demarcation since 1996. In 2005, the National Foundation of the Indian (FUNAI) designated the anthropologist Siglia Doria to coordinate new studies on the land. In April of 2007, a new group was created, under the coordination of the same anthropologist, for completion studies. These studies, according to deadlines of the directive, were to have been published by November 2008.

 

According to FUNAI, there exists the possibility that the reservoir where the crime occurred “is within the area being studied for the demarcation of the Indigenous Land Estação Pareci, but we still have not confirmed this.” The Foundation asserts that the study is in a revision phase and “as yet there is no date for it to be published”.

 

Brasília, 15 de janeiro de 2009

Cimi – Conselho Indigenista Missionário