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Indigenous Peoples, development projects and conflicts in 2010

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This article is part of the Report on Human Rights in Brazil 2010 (Portuguese)

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by Rosane F. Lacerda [1]

In conflicts involving the energy sector, the call for “development” as justification for losses to be absorbed by the indigenous peoples hardly differs from those experienced during the military regime [1964 – 1985]. Then, the developmental boom devastated hundreds of indigenous groups, especially the isolated peoples. The difference is that Brazil today has a constitutional framework with important principles and instruments protective of indigenous rights.

To attempt to create an evaluation and analysis in a brief article on the human rights of indigenous peoples, a reality so rich and complex, is a matter requiring an immense effort of synthesis, in addition to the natural search for reliable data. Due to the strict confines of this collection of articles, we present only a general overview about the most relevant events of the year, the data sources being specialized publications and journalistic articles available on the Internet.

In 2010, in addition to the traditional, longstanding conflicts involving possession and demarcation of indigenous lands, another type of conflict started to gain more visibility: those related to major infrastructural projects associated with the Program for Acceleration of Growth (PAC), of the federal government, or with regional and local economic interests occurring on those lands.

1. Indigenous Peoples vs. major infrastructure projects

This year works in progress and the announcement of projects linked to the electrical power sector occurring on indigenous lands were responsible for much of the dissatisfaction expressed by indigenous leaders, and for tensions with government sectors. The year had barely begun and the Indigenous Land of Raposa Serra do Sol was surprised by the announcement of the release, by the federal government, of resources designated for the preliminary studies of the construction of the Contigo Hydroelectric Plant in the state of Roraima. In addition to calling attention to the anticipated environmental damage from the work, the Indigenous Council of Roraima (CIR) denounced the absence of consultation with the indigenous communities. A few days later, in February, the indigenous peoples were again taken by surprise, this time with the announcement of the construction of Small Hydroelectrics Plants (PCH-Pequenas Centrais Hidrelétricas) in the indigenous lands of São Marcos and Raposa Serra do Sol. This news has received harsh criticism from the CIR, as the prospecting was conducted without authorization of the indigenous communities [2].

Situated on the Tocantins river, the Estreito Hydroelectric Plant will affect the Apinayé and Kraho peoples in the state of Tocantins, and the Krikati, Gavião Pukobiê, Guajajara and Tabajara peoples of the state of Maranhão. According to the Estreito Energy Consortium (CESTE), the works “advance at an accelerated pace and have been completed over 85% of the physical construction schedule” [3]. A public hearing held in April of 2010 revealed tremendous tension involving the non-indigenous population affected by the work, which certainly points to problems also being experienced by indigenous people. The history of hydroelectric plant constructions has demonstrated that one of the primary impacts on indigenous communities has been the increasing pressure on their territories by non-indigenous populations also affected and in situations of abandonment. According to the Indigenous Missionary Council (CIMI), this situation became very clear during the public hearing.

Put into operation in December of 2001, the hydroelectric plant of Lageado on the Tocantins river, has generated powerful impacts on the indigenous Xerente population. In April, 2010, the indigenous people detained, on their Indigenous Land, a group of five service persons of the National Foundation for Indigenous Affairs (FUNAI) and a member of the Xerente Program for Environmental Compensation (Procambix). According to press reports, the indigenous goal was to demand agility of the FUNAI “in the release of financing from federal programs in the areas of production and infrastructure originating from environmental compensation agreements” resulting from the hydroelectric [4].

In June, in Mato Grosso, the Enawenê Nawê reacted against the impacts of the eleven small hydroelectric plants in the Juruena river – various of them installed by companies of the former Governor Blairo Maggi [5]. The indigenous people camped in the town of Sapezal, where they denounced the compromised quality of the river water, which had become muddy and unfit for consumption, putting their way of life at risk.

Designated for the Aripuanã river in Aripuanã, Mato Grosso (MT), construction of the Dardanelos hydroelectric was started in September 2007. In July of 2010, approximately three hundred indigenous persons, from eight different ethnic groups [6] occupied the construction site, claiming “actions of reparation” for the damages caused to an archaeological site, as well as sustainability programs.

The conflict of major repercussion involved the Belo Monte hydroelectric plant. Planned at the Xingu River as the largest project of the PAC and the second largest hydroelectric in the country, it has been the target of intense protests and legal battles over the years. In April this year, two large marches against the work took place in Brasilia (DF), uniting indigenous and riverine peoples, social movements and even the filmmaker James Cameron and actress Sigourney Weaver (of the film Avatar). In an open letter, the caciques (chiefs) Bet Kamata Kayapo, Raoni Kayapo and Yakareti Juruna rejected the project saying: “Our butcher store is the forest, our market is the river. We no longer want that others fool around with the rivers of the Xingu (…)”. In June and August, in the city of Altamira, Pará, several demonstrations against the dam convened hundreds of people impacted and participants of social movements. Quite worrisome is the situation of isolated indigenous groups occupying the region of the Xingu and Bacajá, whose areas of perambulation will be affected by the construction [7]. Despite the gravity of the situation, the federal government subsequently stated that no indigenous land would be affected.

Another source of tension during this period was the construction of the Madeira Hydroelectric Complex (the hydro electrics of Jirau and Santo Antônio) in Rondônia. Besides the impacts on indigenous communities contacted around the 1970s (Kaxarari, Urueu-wau-wau and Pakaanova), the construction affects, in a particularly disturbing manner, several isolated indigenous groups. An expedition in December of 2009, with participation of the Federal Foundation for Indigenous Affairs (FUNAI), the Amazon Protection System (SIAN) and non-governmental organizations concluded that the works on the Jirau plant, so close to some isolated peoples (10 to 30km), would have caused their flight. The Basic Environmental Program (PBA) of the Jirau plant on the Indigenous Land of the Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau recognized “the presence of isolated indigenous peoples such as the Parakuara and the Jururei, as well as two groups whose names are unknown [8].

Finally, in the Northeast, the indigenous peoples of the already battered São Francisco River, besides continuing to confront the transposition project of its waters, are now faced with the construction of the Riacho Seco and Pedra Branca hydroelectric plants (in Bahia and Pernambuco respectively), with dams planned to be located, respectively, between the towns of Curaçá (state of Bahia) and Santa Maria da Boa Vista (PE), and between Orocos (State of Pernambuco) and Curaçá (Bahia), directly affecting the Truká people (Pernambuco) and Tumbalalá (Bahia). The indigenous peoples launched the campaign “Opará – Indigenous Peoples in Defence of the São Francisco”, and in July, at a seminar on the impact of PAC projects, held at the Indigenous Land of the Truká people (Cabrobó, Pernambuco), declared their dissatisfaction with the enterprise and voiced concern over yet another possible source of tension: the possibility of the installation of a nuclear power plant in the region [9].

2. Indigenous peoples and territorial conflicts

According to CIMI, the legal and administrative situation of indigenous lands in the country was as follows in November 2009:

Situation of Indigenous Lands                                                   number
Registered                                                                                366
Ratified                                                                                     35
Declared                                                                                   60
Identified                                                                                   20
In identification                                                                         146
Without provision                                                                       323
Reserved / Domains                                                                       36
Total                                                                                         988

In total, the year 2010 began with circa 489 lands still awaiting the administrative act of recognition of traditional indigenous occupation. This number alone indicates that the issue of demarcation of indigenous lands in Brazil is still far from resolved. In the interim waiting period prior to completion of the constitutional provision that determines that these territories are to be objects of demarcation, conflicts arise, multiply and drag on for years. Those drawing greatest attention throughout the year to date, involved the Tupinambá of Indigenous Land Serra do Padeiro, in Buerarema (Bahia), the Terena of Indigenous Land Cachoeirinha, in Miranda (Mato Grosso do Sul) and the Guarani-Kaiowá in Paranhos and Douradina both in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul.

On February 19, reacting to aggressive acts committed by ranch owners occupying the Indigenous Land of the Tupinambá in Bahia, these indigenous occupied buildings of these ranches, which resulted in the intensification of the criminalization against their leaders. Some hours before sunrise on March 10, the Federal Police (PF), with charges of trespass and conspiracy, arrested the brothers Babau (chief of the community) and Givaldo, who were subsequently transferred to the Mossoró federal maximum security prison in the state of Rio Negro. On June 3, their sister, Glicéria, was also arrested by the Federal Police and taken with Eruthawã, her baby of two months, to the jail in Jequié, Bahia. Gliceria was returning from a meeting with President Lula in Brasilia. The three siblings and the baby were not released until the 16^th of August. The case of the aggressions committed against the Tupinambá was filed by CIMI and Global Justice to the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous peoples, Mr. James Anaya [10].

In the municipality of Miranda in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul (MS), the climate of tension increased during the month of May when the judge Gilmar Mendes, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), granted an injunction for repossession to the family of former Governor Pedro Pedrossian for the lands of the ranches Petrópolis and Paratudal. The Terena people, who revindicate recognition of traditional indigenous occupation of that area, had retaken the area in October 2009. On 18 May, seventy men of the Federal Police and sixty Military Police, using dogs, tear gas and rubber bullets, carried out the eviction of eight hundred indigenous persons, who denounced that “the police arrived already shooting and throwing [tear gas] bombs into the midst of the women and children. Then they gave us only twenty minutes to collect all that is ours and disappear”. The Terena pleaded, in vain, for enough time to harvest cassava, corn and beans they had planted at the site [11].

In August, conflicts involved the Guarani-Kaiowá. A group of about fifty indigenous, including women and children, retook their tekohá (as they call the place where conditions exist for the Guarani way of being) located on the land of the fazenda São Luiz, in Paranhos (MS). On August 23, indigenous leaders began to report that armed men had surrounded the camp, firing shots into the air in an attempt to intimidate and force the indigenous people out. Three days later, the camp was reinforced with the arrival of over two hundred indigenous persons to the region. In the month of September, CIMI and the British NGO Survival International [12] reported that the indigenous people were kept surrounded at the site, without access to water, food and medical care, and under constant threat of armed men hired by landowners. In September, also in Mato Grosso do Sul, a group of about eighty indigenous Kaiowá retook one of the lots comprising the area revindicated as tekohá in the municipality of Douradina. The fazenda owners set fire to the indigenous encampment and said they would remain on site and expulse the indigenous people again in case they returned [13].

Concluding Remarks

In disputes involving the energy sector, the appeal to “development” as justification for the losses to be borne by the indigenous peoples differs little from that experienced during the period of the military regime. At the time, the development boom devastated hundreds of indigenous groups, especially the isolated peoples. The difference is that today Brazil has a constitutional framework with important principles and instruments protective of indigenous rights. Brasil is also subject to international commitments regarding their protection. Convention 169 of International Labor Organization (ILO), for example, professes that indigenous people always be consulted “through their representative institutions” in cases of “legislative or administrative measures which may affect them directly” (art. 6. , § 1, “a”). However, the breach of the “prior consultation” principle with indigenous communities has been the keynote in the cases highlighted here, under the false claim that their land would only be affected if the works were located within that territory.

Like this the environmental, social, economic and cultural impacts that these communities are forced to absorb are ignored. Conflicts concerning the ownership and demarcation of indigenous lands occurred in various regions of the country, but the data indicate that they have been particularly severe in Mato Grosso do Sul, where the indigenous population, confined to miniscule reserves throughout the first half of the 20th century, has persistently struggled to regain their places of origin. These communities have been run over, now, through the ever greater assault by the agribusiness and its project of exclusion and death.

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