The court is expected to decide in August if the government can keep evicting rice farmers from a 4.2 million acre Indian reservation decreed by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in 2005. The evictions were stopped in April when rice farmers started burning bridges and blockading roads, and justices said they feared a "veritable civil war."
The court's decision could help determine the future of the Amazon, whose remaining jungles provide a critical cushion against global warming. It could also redefine Brazil's policy toward its Indians at a time of frequent confrontations, as the country spends billions of dollars opening roads, building dams and promoting agribusiness across the world's largest remaining tropical wilderness.
Unlike in most other Latin American countries, where indigenous people are fighting for rights in mainstream society, most of Brazil's Indians continue to live in the jungle and maintain their languages and traditions. These Indians have fought for decades to keep or regain their ancestral lands.
Brazil's 1988 constitution declared that all Indian ancestral lands must be demarcated and turned over to tribes within five years. While that process has yet to be completed, today about 11 percent of Brazilian territory and nearly 22 percent of the Amazon is in Indian hands.
But as logging, ranching and farming expand into the Amazon, there has been increasing conflict with the Indians and pressure on the government to limit the size of reservations. Earlier this summer, government anthropologists revealed photos of one of the world's last uncontacted tribes fleeing logging near the Peruvian border. In May, Indians protesting a proposed hydroelectric dam on the Xingu River in Para state machete-slashed a government official who came to speak to the group.
Top military generals warn that too much land in Indian hands, especially along Brazil's borders, threatens national security and could lead to tribes unilaterally declaring themselves independent nations. They compare the situation to Kosovo, which broke away from Serbia in February.
At a raucous seminar on national sovereignty at Rio de Janeiro's Military Club, the head of Army's Amazon command, Gen. Augusto Heleno Pereira, attacked the federal government's indigenous policy as "regretful and chaotic." He even suggested that the army would refuse to remove the settlers.
"The Brazilian army does not serve the government but rather the Brazilian state," Pereira said.
Pereira's comments were characterized in the Brazilian media as possibly treasonous and he was called in to discuss them with country's Defense Minister Nelson Jobim. Both the Army and Defense Ministry later said the issue was resolved, without further comment.
The conflict is clear in Roraima, a sparsely populated northeastern state that borders Guyana and Venezuela, where the government in 2005 officially recognized the Raposa Serra do Sol Indian Reservation after long delays. The reservation was created to protect about 18,000 Indians from the Macuxi, Ingarico, Patamona, Wapixana and Taurpeng tribes who live in the area.
Some 3,500 people gathered to celebrate the new reservation three years ago, and were briefly stranded in the jungle when vandals set fire to a bridge. The violence has continued with each attempt to remove settlers.
"The question here is much bigger than the state of Roraima. It's a question of national integration," said rice farmer Paulo Cesar Quartiero, who has been jailed twice for resisting eviction - once for blocking a federal highway and again on weapons charges after his ranch hands shot and wounded 10 Indians.
*article continues*
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- goldenways
- added this
- added August 05, 2008
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It's a shame that the Brazilian-indians have to live like this. Also that they are cutting down the amazon. This is shameful.
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- clapforpepe
- 5 months ago
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Brazil will always have trouble with Indians... Farmers and miners have been breaking into Indian territory for decades. Some tribes are also really rich because they are learning to sell resources (Some Indian tribes buy many 4x4's, etc). I think in the end, the Amazon is still in danger, no matter who has control of it... I also hope the Indians don't start to see the Brazilian state as an enemy.
That Supreme Court sounded really arrogant in that last quote, his marvelous city of Rio is full of slums and violence, what is he doing about that... -
Maybe Brazil will do the right thing. They could use us as an example of how not to treat your indigenous peoples. If for no other reason, these people are good stewards of the lands that they live on. Why make greedy people out of giving peole?
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- bluestranger
- 5 months ago
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The story and history keeps repeating itself and needless to say that money it is the source of this social economic mess. Brasil it is a huge Country. People with the help of Government could go and do their business in all the other States without a problem. However they all decided to punch at the weaker's link. Wherever it is easy to invade, that it is the place they will destroy.
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what harm can a few teepees really be doing??
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Our native population suffered horrifically at our hands. It is still a national shame.
One would hope that the world could have learned from our history. I wonder if there is a way to help this situation. It is sickening that this is happening to Native peoples of Brazil.
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- MeganMcKenzie
- 5 months ago
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What kind of compensation/relocation are they offering the farmers?
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This is very shamful indeed. How many more wars can this world have? I really hope there can be a resolution soon.
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- IndieArtist
- 5 months ago
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I hope this can get sorted out as amicably as possible, and that the natives get their heritage respected a little better.
Check out this pod on how indentured servants are being used to deforest parts of the Amazon.
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wow. i haven't heard much about this. very interesting article.
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It is a real shame to hear about this situation. I used to live in a city on the mouth of the Amazon river. I always saw great cooperation between the local indians and the people of the city. I hope this problem guest quickly resolved.
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Industry and Heritage, can they co-exist?
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A link to one of the worst conflicts in the modern history of the Brazilian Amazon. In 2004, Indians from the Cinta Larga tribe killed 29 white miners who were prospecting on their reservation. The murders exposed a multimillion-dollar clandestine diamond trade centered around a very large deposit of stones discovered on the Cinta Larga's land.
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Arghhh, too much hard-to-read text. Spacing would be nice. And maybe even a summary of the story at the top? News features aren't as easy to digest as straight news headlines methinks...
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- LindseyIndigo
- 5 months ago
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down the road we will all be one big culture and all the smaller ones will be lost. it sickens me to think about it
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- SilenceNoMore
- 5 months ago
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The situation in Brazil is the same as it was in the US 140 years ago.
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waaaayyy too many fuckin humans on this planet
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I hope they don't take away the land that those people live on. It is bad for the people and bad for the earth.
They should use the cities they have to grow on rooftops. use the money and resources they are using to kick tribes out of the jungle and tear the rainforest down to invest in new greener technologies or something.
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- MissAmanda
- 5 months ago
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This simply follows the tradition of American states towards the native inhabitants. It is sad, and the comparison to Kosovo was absurd. If they would treat the indigenous people with respect maybe they would not have to worry about such issues. I hope this doesn’t led to a repeat of the A.I.M. movement in the United States 1970’s.
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Why should we compensate the farmers who encroach on native territory?? The natives have an absolute right to defend their land.
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Just Shameful. If I was in their shoes, it would be civil war too...
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Kosovo had every right to break away and so do these people.
One culture isn't acceptable. We need to retain diversity in all aspects of life.
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This is so typical of how indigenous peoples have been treated throughout history. I really do hope that Brazil follows through with protecting their indigenous tribes. And what could be so bad with Indians declaring themselves to be a sovereign nation anyway? Especially if it's their land and it was affirmed by the government. Their land should never be subject to speculators and profiteers.
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'Top military generals warn that too much land in Indian hands, especially along Brazil's borders, threatens national security and...' Wait, wtf?
What national security is needed in Brazil? They were involved in the Argentina-Brazil war (1820s), the War of the Triple Alliance (1864-1870), and had an extremely minor role during WWII.
Looks like America has given Brazilian military officials a lesson in fear-mongering.
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wholly agreed. what a disgrace. gotta hate that big $ monopolistic (lying mfer) interests saying "I'll take what YOU have for MYself, when it damn well suits me (Monsanto-style), and remain 'benignly' faceless for doing it."
I'm well-pleased the natives are sticking by their spears tellin' em to get the phuk out...or else. (como zapata: "I'd rather die on my feet, than continue living on my knees.") Seems the only cure to commercial capitalism is chaos unfortunately... more power to 'em.
