Tension mounts as Brazilian Indians retake land

27 May 2011
A com­mu­ni­ty of Guarani Indi­ans in Brazil has retak­en part of its ances­tral land in an act of des­per­a­tion, hav­ing lived by the side of a high­way for a year and a half.

The Guarani marched back to their land last week, unwill­ing fur­ther to endure the appalling liv­ing con­di­tions they have been sub­ject to on the road­side.

The Indi­ans of Laran­jeira Nan­deru com­mu­ni­ty had their lands stolen from them in the 1960s, to make way for cat­tle ranch­es. They returned to their land in 2008, but were evict­ed again in Sep­tem­ber 2009 – soon after, their vil­lage was bru­tal­ly attacked and burned down.

Since then, the Guarani have been liv­ing under tar­pau­lin sheet­ing, with lit­tle access to clean water, food, or med­ical care, and sub­ject to intense heat and flood­ing, by the side of a high­way. Large trucks and cars thun­dered past day and night, and one Guarani was run over and killed.

Faride, spokesman of the com­mu­ni­ty, told Sur­vival researchers before the reoc­cu­pa­tion, ‘Laran­jeira Nan­deru was my father’s land, my grandfather’s land, my great grandfather’s land… We need to go back there so we can work and live in peace… that is our dream.’

Watch a film clip of Faride talk­ing about his community’s land — ”>
Some Guarani lead­ers who have led their com­mu­ni­ties’ reoc­cu­pa­tions of their land, such as the inter­na­tion­al­ly-renowned Mar­cos Veron, have been assas­si­nat­ed.

The com­mu­ni­ty is now urg­ing the gov­ern­ment offi­cial­ly to pro­tect their land so they are not evict­ed again.

The Guarani have a deep spir­i­tu­al con­nec­tion to their land, upon which they rely for their men­tal and phys­i­cal well-being.

Fol­low­ing the loss of almost all their land to ranch­es and soya and sug­ar­cane plan­ta­tions, thou­sands of Guarani are liv­ing in over­crowd­ed reserves, and some are camped by the side of high­ways.

Survival’s Direc­tor, Stephen Cor­ry, said today, ‘It is no sur­prise that hav­ing been forced to endure such pre­car­i­ous con­di­tions for so long, the Guarani have tak­en mat­ters into their own hands and returned home. This should sure­ly act as a wake-up call for the author­i­ties to pro­tect the land and remove the lurk­ing threat of anoth­er evic­tion. That is the least the Guarani deserve’.
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Down­load Survival’s report on the sit­u­a­tion of the Guarani, sent to the Unit­ed Nations last year. ( in Eng­lish and Por­tuguese pdf, 2.4 MB).