Brutal farmers make Indian land grab
The peoples of Raposa-Serra do Sol are under attack from violent farmers.
Vicious attacks have shaken their communities as the state government refuses to uphold the law.
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| Makuxi wearing traditional paishara costumes. © 1996 Fiona Watson/Survival |
The Makuxi, Wapixana, Ingarikó, Taurepang and Patamona peoples inhabit a land called Raposa-Serra do Sol (Land of the Fox and Mountain of the Sun) in the north of Brazil, on the border with Venezuela and Guyana.
It is a spectacularly beautiful region of mountains, tropical forest, savanna, rivers and waterfalls. The territory is about 1.7 million hectares and is home to approximately 18,000 – 20,000 Indians.
Despite having had contact with outsiders for over two centuries, the Indians maintain their languages and customs.
Many communities run their own education and health projects and have set up several organisations to defend their rights and help run their projects.
After years of campaigning led by the Indigenous Council of Roraima (CIR), Survival and many NGOs in Brazil and elsewhere, Raposa-Serra do Sol was signed into law by President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva on 15 April 2005.
There was much jubilation at this milestone as the territory had been the object of a sustained and violent campaign by local ranchers and settlers to stop the Indians winning it back.
In the last three decades over twenty Indians have been killed and hundreds injured during the Indians’ tireless struggle to reclaim their ancestral land.
A group of rice farmers, supported by local politicians, waged a war on the Indians, using increasingly violent tactics, shooting and wounding at least ten Indians, burning bridges to prevent Indians entering or leaving their land, and throwing a bomb into one community.
The government of Roraima state lodged a petition in Brazil’s Supreme Court contesting the federal government’s official recognition of the Raposa-Serra do Sol and demanding that it be reduced in size.
Nearly 20,000 Indians live there and rely on the land and rivers for their livelihood, yet the six farmers and local politicians claim that they are obstacles to the state’s development.
Finally, on 19th March 2009 in a landmark ruling, the majority of Supreme Court judges upheld the Indians’ rights to their land, saying it had been demarcated according to the constitution and that its size and borders should be maintained.
The judges also affirmed the importance of maintaining indigenous territories as single, continuous areas and stated that territories on Brazil’s borders do not pose a risk to national sovereignty.
Makuxi leader Jacir José de Souza of the Indigenous Council of Roraima (CIR) said ‘The land is our mother. We are happy that [our land] has been reclaimed and that the Supreme Court has vindicated indigenous people.’
‘Now we have the right to fish in our rivers once more without fear of being shot at by the farmers’ gunmen,’ said another Makuxi leader.
