- Givaldo Santos, vice-chief of the Kaiowá and Guarani community in Taquaperi, was shot dead on May 1st inside the Taquaperi Reserve.
- His killing came amid longstanding land disputes, overcrowding in the reserve, and recent police operations linked to contested territory.
- Santos had reportedly been seeking accountability after a collision on the same highway killed two Indigenous people, including a 12-year-old boy.
- He leaves behind a wife, five children, and a community still seeking answers about his death.
The MS-289 runs through the Taquaperi Reserve in southern Mato Grosso do Sul, between Coronel Sapucaia and Amambai. For the Kaiowá and Guarani, it is both a road and a reminder of the land disputes that have shaped life there for generations. It passes through territory where thousands of indigenous people live crowded into a reserve established nearly a century ago, while many of their traditional lands remain outside its boundaries.
Violence has long accompanied these disputes. Over the past two decades, Kaiowá and Guarani communities have endured killings, threats, evictions, and recurring confrontations linked to efforts to reclaim ancestral territories. The conflicts have stretched across generations of leaders, officials, ranchers and judges.
One of those leaders was Givaldo Santos.
On the evening of May 1st, he was waiting for his brother near a bus stop inside the Taquaperi Reserve, between Coronel Sapucaia and Amambai. According to witnesses, two armed men arrived on a motorcycle and opened fire. He was hit several times and died before help could reach him. He was 40 years old. He left behind a wife and five children.
Santos served as vice-chief of the Kaiowá and Guarani community in Taquaperi. Those who knew him struggled to explain the attack. Residents said he had no known personal enemies and had not reported receiving threats. The circumstances of the killing led many in the community to suspect it was an execution. Investigations remain ongoing.
His responsibilities included representing families before authorities, helping organize community responses to disputes and accidents, and working on matters affecting the reserve. In places where land conflicts remain unresolved, such duties can place leaders at the center of tensions they did not create.
In the days before his death, Santos had reportedly been seeking accountability for another tragedy. A collision on the same highway had killed two indigenous people, including a 12-year-old boy, and seriously injured others. Community members questioned the handling of the investigation and sought greater scrutiny from federal authorities. According to indigenous organizations, Santos had helped mobilize complaints regarding the case.
His death came during a tense period. Only days earlier, police operations had removed indigenous occupiers from land claimed as part of the broader Iguatemipeguá II territory. Community leaders alleged violence during the removals. When news of Santos’s killing spread, Kaiowá and Guarani residents blocked the highway in protest.
The Taquaperi Reserve reflects a longer history. Created in 1928 with roughly 2,000 hectares, it now contains around 5,000 residents, according to community estimates. Indigenous leaders describe chronic overcrowding and continuing disputes over lands that once formed a much larger territory.
These disputes are often described through court cases, demarcation studies, and government decisions. They are also experienced in more immediate ways. Families wait for investigations. Communities gather after deaths. Leaders spend years pursuing complaints, petitions, and meetings whose outcomes remain uncertain.
On May 2nd, Santos’s body was returned to Taquaperi where villagers gathered for funeral rites and a final farewell. He was buried among people who knew him as a husband, father, neighbor and leader.
The circumstances of his death remain unclear. The work that occupied much of his life is still waiting to be done.
Banner image: Givaldo Santos. From via family, via CIMI.
Credits
This story first appeared on Mongabay
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