Just Earth!
Brazil
"Our Intention is that one day we can live autonomously, taking care of ourselves... we want to fight to be able to survive quietly, peacefully, without needing help... Everything depends on the land."
Interview with Xucuru Chief, Francisco Assiss de Araujo
(Chicão Xucuru) in 1993.
He was assassinated in May 1998.
We are the land
Brazil, the home of Chico Mendes, Davi Yanomami, Paulo Paikan and Ailton Krenak, has long been recognized as the bastion of Indigenous rights activism in the Americas. With the largest and most populous nation in South America, Brazil is also home to a large population of Indigenous peoples. The attitude of the previous Brazilian governments to human rights situation of its Indigenous peoples has been inconsistent. Although successive governments of Brazil have long participated in international meetings to advance Indigenous peoples human rights, there positive discourse has not been matched by similar improvements on the ground where Brazilian Indigenous peoples continue to suffer threats, attacks and killings. In July 2002, Brazil ratified International Labour Organization’s Convention 169, on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples, from 1989, which recognizes and protects the rights of Indigenous peoples, setting international standards for governments to comply to.
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A Brazilian Indigenous activist shows traditional use
of land in the Raposa Serra do Sol indigenous territory, State of Roraima,
Brazil. © Amazon Alliance) |
When Portuguese sailor, Pedro Alvarez Cabral first landed in 1500, there were approximately 2 -5 million Indigenous people living in Brazil, a population reduced to some 200,000 by the mid-20th century. The total indigenous population has since grown to approximately 330,000 according to a 1997 OAS report. This represents about 0.2 percent of Brazil’s total population. They live in 575 distinct areas and speak 180 different languages. These groups vary in size from the Guarani Indians — 40,000 — to groups with a population as small as 10. The small size of some of these Indigenous groups means that the loss of life of a few of their members may have proportionately devastating effects on their very survival.
There has been an attempt to document human rights violations against Brazilian Indians since the end of military dictatorship in 1985. Indigenous organizations began to emerge in different parts of Brazil in the early 1980s during the elaboration of the country’s new Constitution (1988) as a way to participate in national and international debates affecting their welfare and especially the right to occupy ancestral territories. These associations, such as Coordenção da Organizações Indígenas da Bacia Amazônica (COIAB), the Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin, representing more than 100 distinct nations, have been instrumental in drawing international attention to the human rights struggles of Brazilian Indians and very active in further pursuing the demarcation of indigenous lands in the country.
The state of the Brazilian Indians’ human rights is closely tied to their struggle for land rights. In 1991 the Brazilian Government coined the slogan “Indian is Land”. It was an acknowledgement of the centrality of land rights to the social, economic, cultural and political survival of Brazil's indigenous peoples. Indians derive their identity from their relationship to land; their survival as unique cultural entities is linked to land.
Amnesty International takes no side in disputes over land. What concerns the organization is the persistent failure of successive governments to protect the fundamental human rights of Brazil's Indigenous peoples. By failing to arbitrate promptly in disputes between the indigenous and non-indigenous community the state has left indigenous groups ever more vulnerable faced with escalating violence against them. The authorities at all levels have failed to protect the Indians effectively or to bring to justice those responsible for killing, abducting, harassing and threatening them. As a result, human rights abuses continue with impunity.
While in theory Brazilian Indians enjoy a wide array of institutional protection from human rights abuses, in reality, there is a disturbing pattern of organized violence against them. Violence against Brazilian Indians is compounded by delays in the federal process of legalization of Indigenous territories, or “demarcation”, which is fiercely opposed by landowners. Although indigenous groups welcomed the recent election of president Luis Inácio Lula da Silva and publicly stated their expectations of his government, there has been an alarming escalation in attacks and killings of indigenous people across Brazil so far this year. This violence appears to be as much the result of racial prejudice as motivated by disputes over land. On 6 January 2003 Leopoldo Crespo, a 77-year-old Kaingang Indian, was beaten to death by a group of youths in an apparently motiveless attack in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil’s southernmost state. In Roraima state, in the far north of the country, the body of Aldo da Silva, a 52-year-old member of the Macuxi indigenous community, was found in suspicious circumstances in the Raposa Serra do Sol indigenous territory. This area was recently the subject of a decision in favour of the Macuxi by Brazil’s highest court. On 13 January, 72-year-old Marcos Verón, leader of the Guarani-kaiová indigenous community, was beaten to death during a violent confrontation between Indians and landowners in Mato Grosso do Sul, western Brazil. These incidents underscore the urgent need to pay serious attention to the increasing violence against Brazilian Indians and their defenders who continue to suffer constant threats and attacks.
There is perhaps no better time to address the important issues of Indigenous peoples’ human rights in Brazil. The election and inauguration of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as President of Brazil on January 1, 2003 gives cause for optimism. The ruling Workers Party has been a strong advocate of Indigenous peoples’ rights and President Lula promised during his campaign to protect the environment and guarantee the rights of Brazil's Indigenous peoples. It is important now that Amnesty International continues to remind the government of the need to effectively address the protection of Inidigenous peoples and their human rights and as part of that process ensure that the demarcation and protection of the Indigenous lands be concluded under the current administration.
Constitutional Rights to Land Still in the Balance
Over the last three decades, Indigenous peoples of Brazil have through relentless struggle won official recognition of their rights to land. In 1988, Brazil adopted a new Constitution, which provided far-reaching rights to its Indigenous peoples. Article 231 specifically recognized the cultural rights of Brazilian Indigenous peoples and their inalienable rights to the lands that they traditionally occupied. It also affirmed the rights of Indigenous peoples to participate in decisions regarding the exploitation of natural resources on their land. The new Constitution also prohibited the removal of Indigenous peoples from their lands and invasion of their territories. By considering Indigenous rights to be “original” rights, the Constitution acknowledged the principle that Brazilian Indians were the original owners of the lands and as a result, their rights precede any other administrative action carried out by the government. Indian land rights were also upheld in the previous constitution.
The 67th act of the constitutional transitional dispositions (Ato das Disposições Constitucionais Transitórias), ordered the demarcation of all Indigenous territories by 1993. While about three-quarters of the indigenous territory is demarcated-designated as areas where the fullest protection afforded by law is available to the indigenous inhabitants-many areas still remain to be fully legally protected. Although indigenous groups on demarcated land are entitled to greater protection, in reality, most Indian lands whether demarcated or not are coveted for some form of development and have become a primary source of violence against Indigenous peoples. Failure on the part of the government to move quickly on demarcating Indian land has contributed to rise in the level of violence against Indigenous peoples of Brazil. Indigenous groups living on disputed land have suffered massacres, selective killings, beatings, threats and harassment. These violations occur because the government failed to put in place mechanisms of protection for indigenous peoples or the authorities have failed to punish those responsible. Indigenous peoples are consistently attacked either with direct official collusion or with the acquiescence of the state or federal authorities.
According to reports, on February 7 2003, Marcos Luidson de Aráujo, his nephew Diogo Aráujo, Adenílson Barbosa da Silva and Joseílton José dos Santos were driving a truck in the municipality of Pesquiera in Pernambuco state, when they had to stop to let a herd of cattle across the road in front of them. As they stopped, several unidentified gunmen opened fire on the truck. Adenílson Barbosa da Silva and Joseílton José dos Santos were killed. Marcos Luidson de Aráujo, although injured, managed to escape. Diogo Aráujo was unhurt. A group of Xucuru gave chase to the attackers, and four of the Xucuru were injured. By nightfall on the day of the attack, police had still not arrived at the scene.
It is believed that the attack was planned by landowners in the region, perhaps with the assistance of a small dissident group from the Xucuru community who have threatened Marcos Luidson de Aráujo, the current leader of the Xucuru, in the past. He and his mother have received numerous death threats over the last three years, largely believed to be from local landowners. In October 2002 the Organization of American States (OAS) called on the Brazilian authorities to protect Marcos Luidson de Aráujo and his mother Zenilda Maria de Araújo. No protection had been provided for the family.
Although an area of 27,000 hectares in Pesquiera was demarcated in favor of the Xucuru in 1992 this has been disputed by landowners ever since. The Xucuru currently only occupy 20 percent of this area. The struggle for full recognition of their land rights has long been marked by bloodshed. Marcos Luidson de Aráujo's father, Francisco de Assis Araújo, a previous leader of the Xucuru, was killed by gunmen on 20 May 1998 (see Amnesty International's report, Brazil: Indigenous leaders marked for death - The killing of Francisco de Assis Araújo, AMR 19/15/98). On 23 April 2001 another Xucuru leader, Francisco de Assis Santana, was shot dead in Pesquiera while on his way to meet members of National Indian Foundation (FUNAI), or Fundação Nacional do Índio the government’s indigenous office (see Amnesty International Annual Report 2002). A landowner accused of the murder of Francisco de Assis Araújo allegedly committed suicide in custody last year.
The conditions of life for many Brazilian Indians are dire. Forced off their traditional lands, and in dispute with powerful local land claimants, many are now living in small isolated groups in overcrowded conditions with inadequate resources, often surrounded by hostile landowners and settlers and at the mercy of hired gunmen who operate with impunity. Indeed the policy of concentrating Guaraní in ever more crowded official reserves has been in place since the 18th century and was accelerated in the 1960s and 1970s.
The hardship has taken its toll on one Indian group and a wave of teenage suicide swept the community. Over 60 suicides of Guaraní Kaiowa and Nhandeva Indians were documented between 1990 and mid-1992. Most of the dead were between 14 and 17 years old and most of them either hanged themselves or took poison. The official explanation of the suicides was overcrowding and cultural disorientation on the Indian reserves. This situation is not limited to the Guaranís. In southern and northeastern Brazil, occupied long before the Amazon, half of the total national Indigenous population is confined to less than 1percent of the indigenous land.
Even more troubling are concerted efforts by some states and regional political elites to reverse or undermine demarcations in key areas continue to threaten the integrity of the process – and ultimately all of the indigenous lands. Such is the case of Macuxi Indians who live in an area officially known as Raposa Serra do Sol in Roraima state. The area was demarcated in 1998, but the President of the Republic is yet to sign a decree confirming its bounds. However, the state government of Roraima immediately tried to overturn the act by filling an injunction in the courts preventing the ratification of the demarcated area. The injunction has prevented the removal of ranchers and colonists who are illegally occupying the Indian’s land. In November 27, 2002 the Superior Court of Justice in Brasilia overturned this injunction paving the way for the President to ratify the demarcation. On February 10, 2003, President Lula ratified eight areas – the Raposa Serra do Sol was not included. Meanwhile violence against members of the Macuxi Indigenous people continues unabated. Aldo da Silva Matos, who lived in the Lage community in the state of Roraima, disappeared on January 2, 2003 after going to the Retiro Farm, located in the Raposa/Serra do Sol indigenous land, to get a calf that belonged to him. His body was found seven days later buried in a shallow grave 1,500 meters from the main house of the farm. The indigenous community suspects that two employees of the farm, who are now fugitives from justice, committed the crime. The owner of the farm, Francisco das Chagas de Oliveira da Silva, is known as an enemy of indigenous people and is being sued for trying to kill another Macuxi.
Why the abuses continue
In theory, there is extensive scope to protect Brazil's Indians from human rights abuse. International experts regard provisions in Brazil's 1988 Constitution, recognizing indigenous social and cultural traditions and upholding Indian land rights, to be among the most advanced in the world. Indians are given special protection in law. In recognition of the likely hostility between local economic interests and indigenous interests the implementation of indigenous policy has traditionally been a federal responsibility. All litigation arising from matters of ownership of indigenous areas falls within the competence of federal courts.
Further protection should also be provided by the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI), an official body responsible for indigenous affairs. FUNAI was created in 1967 to protect the indigenous population, in the Ministry of the Interior, to replace the discredited Indian Protection Service. FUNAI's role is defined as that of guardian: it is to assist Indians to exercise their own wishes, rather than imposing its will on them. FUNAI has considerable powers to prevent abuses against Indians. For example, it is able to enlist the help of federal police or the armed forces to protect Indian lands from invasion.
However, there have been many allegations that FUNAI has abused its role as guardian of the Indians. It has failed to prevent attacks on Indians and the illegal invasion of their lands. Its administration has been the subject of numerous complaints, from waste of resources to corruption and ill-treatment of Indigenous peoples. On July 17, 2002, Amnesty International issued an Urgent Action on behalf of Hipãridi Top'tiro and Dr. Mariana Ferreira expressing concern for their safety. Hipãridi Top'tiro, president of the Xavante Warã Association and a reknowned environmental defender, his family and Dr. Ferreira, an anthropologist then at the University of Tennessee had received death threats. Hipãridi Top'tiro is a Xavante leader from the Idzô’uhu Village on the Terra Indígena Sangradouro in the municipality of Primavera do Leste, state of Mato Grosso.
In the year 2000 the total population of the Xavante people in central Brazil was recorded at 9,602 individuals, distributed on 11 reservations--now called Terras Indígenas or Indigenous Lands. Life on these reservations feels like war: the Xavante have to fight for food, drinking water and health assistance. The mortality rate in Sangradouro was recently calculated at 87.1 per 1000—well above the national average in Brazil (37.5 per 1000). Adults are facing epidemics of tuberculosis, diabetes and cancer, while children die of parasitic infections and respiratory diseases due to chronic malnutrition and meager health services. The water they drink is contaminated by pesticides and fertilizers used by farmers on the heavily logged outskirts of the reservations, where most headwaters are located.
Both Hipãridi Top'tiro and Dr. Ferreira are working together on an environmental defense project called Salve o Cerrado (Save the Savannah), which is being developed by the Xavante Warã Association and funded by the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment. The death threats and attempts against their lives are believed to be connected to their environmental defense work to save the Savannah and the legal action that Hipãridi Top'tiro brought against local landowners for deforesting parts of the Indigenous Land in 1998-99. The Xavante Warã Association was created in 1997 to launch the campaign Salve o Cerrado, aimed at developing a plan to restore the biodiversity of the local environment and protect the well-being of the indigenous population.
In Hipãridi Top'tiro’s own words,
“We, the Xavante, know of the importance of the cerrado and of the life it sustains. We know that without the cerrado the Xavante culture does not exist, because there is no future for us. Today, around our [Sangradouro] reservation, which is still pretty much an island of intact cerrado, numerous soybean, rice and cotton farms, cities and highways have taken over what used to be our ancestral territory. Satellite images taken in 1999 [TM Landsat 225/71 on 6-17-99] show that over 1400 hectares of our reservation has been deforested due to land invasions.”
Yet another Warã Association project most recently approved by the United Nations—Flowers and Fruits of the Savannah in the Xavante Experimental Kitchen—will most likely draw the ire of local landowners and Funai employees who are adamantly against the self-determination and economic autonomy of indigenous peoples. According to reports, the regional administrator of FUNAI in Primavera do Leste, who has strong ties to farmers in the region, has long been intimidating and threatening Hipãridi Top'tiro, members of his family, and Dr. Mariana Ferreira, who acts as a consultant for the Xavante. Although they have repeatedly reported these threats to the national FUNAI President, no action has been taken to address it. As such the individuals continue to live and work in constant fear for their lives.
This case is not an isolated incidence. An adviser to the President of FUNAI concluded in a May 1991 report on the killing of Abdon Leonardo da Silva, and his brother, Abdias Joao da Silva:
“This…is the unfortunate reality of the administration of FUNAI in the northeast, an administration clothed in lies, in the abuse of power, and discrimination against Indigenous peoples, which commits every sort of arbitrary acts against Indigenous groups, counting on the protection of influential state politicians, doing whatever it wants, including commissioning the killing of those who are inconvenient….”
Abdon Leonardo da Silva, and his brother, Abdias Joao da Silva were ambushed and killed on December 28, 1990 while returning to their village, Sierra Uma in the municipality of Floresta. Abdon Leonardo da Silva was undoubtedly singled out because he was an outspoken advocate of Indian rights. He already survived one attempt on his life before he was finally killed. After his election as community chief, he had promised to seek demarcation of Atikun lands and to address a series of abuses being committed against the community. There are strong suspicions that local FUNAI staff was involved in the planning, carrying out and covering up the killings. Abdon Leonardo da Silva had repeatedly denounced arbitrary acts by local FUNAI staff including the diversion of and sale in the neighboring town of seeds, medicines and building materials which were supposed set aside for Indians. He reported having received death threats from FUNAI staff, including the head of the local post, and sought guarantees for his safety.
A federal police inquiry into the case was concluded on April 25, 1991. The report stated that local court offices and FUNAI officials have refused to cooperate in providing the full names and details of those to be charged. Federal police nevertheless sought an arrest warrant for the FUNAI staff member, one of his sons and two other men. The local judge ordered the arrest of three of the men, but not the FUNAI staff on grounds that he was regularly making court appearances on other charges and was thus of little danger of absconding. In spite of outstanding arrest warrants against them the four suspects accused of killing Abdon da Silva and Adias da Silva have not been arrested and remain at large. One of the suspects was held in preventive detention for five months in 1995, but subsequently escaped. The case is continuing at an extremely slow pace, with the accused being tried in absentia. There were reports of the accused living openly in a neighboring state.
FUNAI has also been criticized for poor recruitment and inadequate training of its staff members, which in some areas has left FUNAI posts ill-equipped to respond the needs of indigenous groups and, crucially, unable to protect them against human rights violations. Nevertheless, there remain a number of highly dedicated staff at different levels of the organization and criticism of the practice and working methods of FUNAI and the alleged behavior of the regional staff in these cases should not be construed as a criticism of FUNAI staff.
Police Violence and the Brazil 500th Anniversary
On April 22 2000, Brazil and the rest of the world witnessed one of the most unprovoked violent acts against the country’s Indigenous and African-Brazilian population. Several political movements, trade unions, NGO’s, grassroots and indigenous organizations set up what they called the "Outros 500", ‘Other 500 years’ in protest against the official celebration of Brazil’s 500th anniversary of the arrival of the Portuguese on Brazilian soil. To celebrate this event the Brazilian government organized a host of events, costing $R66.7 million, of which $R1.7 million was spent on presidential security. The celebrations were focused on the town of Porto Seguro in the south of Bahia, near where Portuguese ships first landed in 1500. Events included the making of a replica of the original ship that the Portuguese sailor, Pedro Alvarez Cabral, arrived in; the construction of various buildings in the indigenous town of Coroa Vermelha, including a shopping center and a conference center; as well as the installation, without permission, on indigenous titled land of an enormous metal cross on the site of the first mass celebrated by the Portuguese.
Outros 500 was planned as a way of using the symbolic date to focus on the situation of the indigenous people, the landless, racial minorities and other marginalized groups in Brazilian society. It was also seen as a means of contesting the official message being promoted by the federal government, both at home and abroad, which they claimed uncritically celebrated the 500 years of Brazil’s history; ignoring the continuing injustices suffered by sections of Brazilian society, such as indigenous and black peoples and rural landless workers.
The official celebrations angered many groups who felt that a real opportunity for reflecting on Brazil’s complex historical legacy was being suppressed in favor of a superficial national and international marketing campaign. At the same time the authorities excluded indigenous leaders and representatives from around the country and denied them the right to participate in the celebrations and express their legitimate concerns regarding indigenous rights.
On the day of the anniversary, demonstrators from black and indigenous groups as well as popular activists, politicians, students and many others supporting the "Outros 500" campaign tried to peacefully march from Coroa Vermelha to Porto Seguro. Units of the military police blocked the road then reportedly used excessive force to break up the peaceful demonstration; attacking marchers with tear-gas, rubber-bullets and batons; leaving 30 protestors injured and 141 in short-term detention. Numerous witnesses alleged that the police attack was unprovoked and apparently designed to prevent the marchers from reaching Porto Seguro where the former president of Brazil and the president of Portugal were leading the official celebrations.
Although marchers were denied access to Porto Seguro, the police action appeared to demonstrate the Brazilian authorities’ continued willingness to employ arbitrary state violence in order to silence inconvenient protests. Rather than accept any responsibility for the violence, the authorities - including the former President himself - praised the police for their action; denying any excessive use of force and attempting to assure public opinion that the measures had been essential in order to avoid worse violence. The authorities justified the police action by portraying the marchers as violent and intent on disrupting the official celebrations. Repeated unsubstantiated allegations were made in order to discredit the marchers and to suggest that left-wing agitators had infiltrated and manipulated the indigenous groups in order to cause violence. Media reports and numerous eyewitness accounts contradict these claims, and appear to expose a clear attempt by the authorities to discredit the "Outros 500" campaign and legitimize police violence.
In the aftermath of the police action and the ensuing public outcry, the Federal Public Prosecutor`s Office in Bahia ordered the federal police of Bahia to conduct an enquiry into the police violence to establish whether there were sufficient grounds to bring criminal prosecutions against the Brazilian State. A civil case was also opened seeking moral and material compensation for Indigenous groups affected by the police action. The Federal Prosecution Service in the city of Ilhéus finally filed a civil and a criminal action with the 1st Federal Court of Ilhéus. The public civil action was filed against the Federal Administration and the State of Bahia and criminal action was filed against Colonel Wellington Müller Andrade, the head of the operation that repressed the indigenous, black and popular march. Colonel Müller is being prosecuted for the crimes of disobedience, abuse of power, and body injury. Unfortunately, this violent against Indigenous peoples is not unusual. It exemplifies the way Brazilian government treats its Indigenous peoples over the years.
Conclusion
Over the past thirty years, the participation of Brazil’s Indigenous peoples in political life has increased, resulting in the general recognition of their rights. Unfortunately, these advancements have not resulted in real protection of the human rights of Brazilian Indians and the recognition of their Constitutional rights to their land. Indigenous people in Brazil continued to be abducted, tortured and killed for their land or the resources on them. The Brazilian government seems to have given greater priority to economic and political interests over Indigenous peoples’ rights. Indigenous peoples remain largely excluded from political and economic decisions that affect their lives. Time after time, Amnesty International has reported assaults, massacres and targeted killings of Indigenous peoples and those defending their rights. Yet these practices have gone almost entirely unpunished. Impunity in such cases has encouraged increase in violence, putting whole communities at risk, in spite of comprehensive Constitutional guarantees for Indigenous peoples in Brazil. It is time to put an end to this impunity, and ensure that the rights of Indigenous peoples, enshrined in the 1988 Constitution, are truly enjoyed by them.