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Brazil is emerging onto the world stage as one of the newly powerful economic engines, but conflict between members of the indigenous Guarani Indians and farmers and ranchers have resulted in a series of displacements and evictions.
The area of Brazil known as the Mato Grosso do Sul began to be exploited for cattle ranches in the 1960s, and more recently for farming, in particular large sugar plantations. As a result of the expansion of cattle ranches, the indigenous people were removed from their ancestral lands and confined to reservations.
These reservations have become overcrowded and untenable for many. Malnutrition and starvation stalk the young. The Indians of the community known as Laranjeira Nanderu left their reservation and returned to what they say is their ancestral lands in 2008 and re-established a village. In 2009 a court order upheld an eviction order. As a consequence their village was burned and animals dispersed, forcing the Guarani to camp by a roadside. After existing a makeshift life for over a year, the Guarani have defied the court order and retaken their land.
“The UN’s top official on indigenous peoples released a critical report last month on Brazil, in which he singled out the chronic land conflict in the Guarani’s territory, where ‘indigenous peoples suffer a severe lack of access to their traditional lands.” Survival International
While many of us might say that the plight of an obscure group of Brazilian natives is naught to do with us, the globalization of trade makes it our business. Brazil is a major exporter of agricultural products. Beef is exported, soy is exported for animal feed, and the boom in ethanol production, sold to the N.American public as a “green” fuel. Big money is involved in these decisions. Shell Oil has embarked on a joint venture with the Brazilian company, Cosan to grow and produce ethanol on the disputed lands. According to Survival International, the deal is worth in the region of $12 billion.
As countries seek to exploit their natural resources to boost their economies and increase trade, often the indigenous people become casualties to progress. In our province in BC, land settlement treaties with our First Nations people are slowly being negotiated about 100 years late.