Military police in Brazil last week killed an Indigenous Guarani Kaiowá man and wounded several others during altercations over contested land, which the communities have been trying to take formal control of for decades. The violence has refocused attention on the country’s slow land demarcation process and the unsafe conditions it has created for Guarani and other Indigenous people. Neri Ramos de Silva, a 23-year-old Guarani Kaiowá man, was shot in the back of the head on September 18 by military police in the southwestern state of Mato Grosso do Sul, where the Ñande Ru Marangatu territory overlaps with private property, according to the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples (MPI). The violence stemmed from disputes over who had a right to occupy the area. De Silva, a father of an 11-month-old, was a vocal supporter of Indigenous land demarcation for his community. “The MPI expresses its deep regret and indignation for yet another Indigenous life lost in the actions of those who should have guaranteed their safety,” it said in a statement following the news. The Guarani Kaiowá — a subgroup of the Guarani — lost most of their ancestral land in Mato Grosso do Sul throughout the 1960s, 70s and 80s, when rapid expansion of cattle ranching and farming resulted in deforestation and the loss of biodiversity. Indigenous communities of all kinds have spent decades trying to reclaim their land through a demarcation process, in which territories are mapped and titled by the National Indigenous Peoples Foundation (Funai). But the…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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South Africa Today – Environment
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