Brazil's Guarani suffer at the hands of violent ranchers
For the Guarani, land is the origin of all life. But violent invasions by ranchers have devastated their territory and nearly all of their land has been stolen.
Guarani children starve and their leaders have been assassinated. Hundreds of Guarani men, women and children have committed suicide.
‘This here is my life, my soul. If you take me away from this land, you take my life.’ Marcos Veron
The killing of Guarani leader Marcos Veron in 2003 was a tragic but all too typical example of the violence that his people are subject to.
Mr Veron, aged around 70, was the leader of the Guarani-Kaiowá community of Takuára. For fifty years his people had been trying to recover a small piece of their ancestral land, after it was seized by a wealthy Brazilian and turned into a vast cattle ranch. Most of the forest that once covered the area had since been cleared.
In April 1997, desperate after years of lobbying the government in vain, Marcos led his community back onto the ranch. They began to rebuild their houses, and could plant their own crops again.
But the rancher who had occupied the area went to court, and a judge ordered the Indians out.
In October 2001, more than one hundred heavily armed police and soldiers forced the Indians to leave their land once more. They eventually ended up living under plastic sheets by the side of a highway.
While still in Takuára, Marcos said, ‘This here is my life, my soul. If you take me away from this land, you take my life.’
His words came prophetically and tragically true early in 2003, when, during another attempt to return peacefully to his land, he was viciously beaten by employees of the rancher. He died a few hours later.
Veron’s killers have not been charged with his murder, but they were charged with lesser crimes related to the attack, following a court hearing in early 2011.
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