Guarani chief killed in assault on Indigenous group

© Aty Guasu/Survival Worldwide

Vicente Fernandes Vilhalva, a spokesman for the Guarani Kaiowá individuals was shot within the brow by gunmen who attacked his group.

Whereas Indigenous land rights come below scrutiny on the COP 30 in Brazil, on 16 November, within the Sunday morning darkness, attackers descended on an Indigenous group far to the south of the nation, opening fireplace — killing a Guarani Kaiowá chief and injuring 4 others.

Weapons blazing, 20 attackers descended on Pyelito Kue, a group of Guarani Kaiowá individuals who just lately reoccupied a part of their ancestral land. They shot Vicente Fernandes Vilhalva, 36, within the head, killing him. 4 extra Guarani individuals had been injured because the gunmen opened fireplace and burned down the group’s shelters and belongings.

One of many leaders of Pyelito Kue, talking anonymously, informed Repórter Brasil: “We had been surrounded. The gunmen didn’t come to speak, they simply began taking pictures. Now we have no weapons, now we have no likelihood of defending ourselves. We retreated and went to the village, however they stored taking pictures…. They burned all the pieces within the reclaimed space: our shacks, pots, chairs…”

The murderous assault — the fourth violent assault in opposition to the Pyelito Kue group within the final two weeks — was the most recent episode in a vicious assault that ranchers have been conducting in opposition to the Guarani Kaiowá for many years.

“We, the Guarani Kaiowá Indigenous peoples, condemn the assaults that came about in Tekoha Pyelito Kue, which resulted within the homicide of a pacesetter. Our wrestle is for all times, for land, and for ‘Tekoha Guasu’ (our full ancestral territory). 

“We not settle for being handled as invaders on our personal land,” says an announcement by the Guarani Kaiowá group Aty Guasu. 

© Aty Guasu

Vicente Fernandes Vilhalva’s physique surrounded by his fellow Guarani Kaiowá.

The Guarani Kaiowá group of Pyelito Kue and different Guarani Kaiowá communities within the area had been violently pushed off their land in Mato Grosso do Sul state, Brazil, many years in the past. Since then, virtually all their land has been occupied by agribusiness and cattle ranches. Their resistance and makes an attempt to reclaim the land have been met with brutal and sometimes lethal assaults. 

Guarani households of Pyelito Kue have been compelled to reside in a cramped 97-hectare space, with little room to develop crops, for greater than 10 years.  With individuals going hungry, they reclaimed one other a part of their land in Iguatemipeguá I Indigenous Territory at the start of November. This patch of land, the place Vicente was killed, is occupied by Fazenda Cachoeira, a large cattle ranch leased by Agropecuária Santa Cruz and Agropecuária Guaxuma – cattle export firms.  

FUNAI, the federal government’s Indigenous peoples division, delimited the world in 2013, one of many first steps towards demarcation. The method has been stalled since then – in violation of Brazilian and worldwide legislation, forcing the Guarani to endure violent assaults and killings by the hands of the ranchers and police backed by native politicians who act with impunity.  An official settlement made between public prosecutors, FUNAI and the Guarani in 2007, and up to date land demarcation guarantees by President Lula — haven’t been upheld.

In accordance with witnesses, Brazil’s Army Police and members of the Division of Border Operations (Departamento de Operações de Fronteira) had been concerned on this newest assault.

“The Structure ensures our rights, and the Brazilian State has an obligation to guard our peoples,” says the assertion by Aty Guasu. 

“We ask for the help of civil society, human rights organizations, the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Workplace, FUNAI and the Federal Public Defender’s Workplace to watch the case and make sure the security of the Guarani Kaiowá households within the face of the local weather of hatred and threats which might be intensifying.”

Caroline Pearce, Government Director of Survival Worldwide, stated: “Every week in the past in Belém, President Lula acknowledged that Indigenous lands are key to combating local weather change. He stated “maybe” not sufficient of their land has been correctly acknowledged. Vicente’s loss of life is the stark actuality of that lack of recognition: Indigenous individuals being evicted, dispossessed, denied their land, their rights, their livelihoods – their very lives.

“It’s obscene that Guarani Kaiowá — of Pyelito Kue, and of different communities — are gunned down and killed merely for dwelling in their very own dwelling, on their very own ancestral land. The federal government of Brazil should full land recognition, shield their territories, and prosecute those that evicted them and proceed to terrorize them.”

Editor’s notes

• Fazenda Cachoeira is only one of 44 ranches overlapping the Iguatemipeguá I Indigenous Territory. The 41,714-hectare territory encompasses many tekoha (Guarani ancestral lands) together with that of the Pyelito Kue group.
• Responding to earlier assaults on Pyelito Kue group in 2011 and 2016, the Inter-American Fee on Human Rights known as for precautionary measures.
• This violence is the most recent in a sequence of brutal assaults on Guarani communities. The Guarani of Guyra Roka group — dwelling to the late Ambrosio Vilhalva, star of the movie “Birdwatchers” — have additionally been focused, with gunmen employed by ranchers  and native police injuring a number of individuals with rubber bullets and teargas, and destroying their homes.