Amazon Tribe Attacked by Masked Gunners

Sabrina Valle in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
for National Geographic News

June 27, 2008

A video released last week by human rights groups shows masked gunners opening fire on Makuxi Indians in Brazil after tribespeople began building shelters on a farming operation inside a national Indian reserve last month.

The situation is "an emblematic case" for Indians across Brazil, who regularly clash with developers, farmers, loggers, and other interests over land use, said Fiona Watson of Survival International.

The new footage—released by Survival International and the Indigenous Council of Roraima State (CIR)—shows people firing assault rifles and throwing homemade bombs at the Makuxi in the Raposa Serra do Sol Reserve.

Ten Indians—six of them under the age of 18—were injured in the attack.

The gunners are believed to have been working for Paulo César Quartiero, according to Survival International. Mayor of a nearby town and a major rice farmer, Quartiero has refused to stop farming in the protected reserve.

Violence has been escalating since early April, when a petition was filed with the Brazilian Supreme Court to authorize farmers to stay in Raposa Serra do Sol. A final ruling is expected in August.

Hired Guns?

The 4.2-million-acre (1.7-million-hectare) Raposa Serra do Sol Reserve was created by Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in April 2005.

About 19,000 Indians from several tribes live in Raposa Serra do Sol, including five different Makuxi ethnic groups.

Many of these groups are at least partially integrated into the modern world, and most speak both their tribal languages and Portuguese.

(Related: "Photos Spur Debate on Protecting 'Uncontacted' Tribes" [June 3, 2008].)

Although roughly a hundred farmers left the land once the reserve was announced, some large-scale operations have continued to occupy parts of the territory.

Aldenir Kadete, a Wapichana Indian and a member of CIR, took the footage of the recent conflict.

According to CIR, a group of about a hundred Makuxi arrived at a nonproductive part of Quartiero's farm around 5 a.m. local time on May 5.

The Indians built four sheds as if they were putting up a new settlement in an attempt to force Quartiero's operations to leave the land.

Quartiero told O Globo newspaper that he had not been on the scene when the Makuxi arrived, but that he had been notified that Indians were invading his farm with bows and arrows.

"When employees tried to remove them, they shot arrows back. So there was reaction and people were injured," he said at the time.

When the Makuxi refused to leave the farm, about 20 of Quartiero's employees left and came back riding four motorcycles and driving an SUV, according to Survival International.

"They got off and immediately started throwing bombs," said Tereza Pereira de Souza of the CIR, who witnessed the attack.

Quartiero was arrested after the incident and held for ten days, but he has since been released.

Police report finding a large cache of weapons on his farm, of which he denies any knowledge.

Slow to Decide

Brazil's 615 Indian reserves currently add up to 262 million acres (106 million hectares)—nearly 12.5 percent of the country's land.

The federal government has promised to set aside 127 more reserves by 2010, including 29 territories that will be designated this year.

For years farmers have been opposing continued demarcation for indigenous groups, which forces farmers to abandon large regions of cropland.

Sydney Possuelo, former president of Brazil's Indian-protection agency FUNAI, said that slowness in the justice system is one of the main underlying causes for tension between farmers and indigenous groups.

"Decisions take up to 20, 25 years," he said. "Slowness favors the whites, because during such a long time without legal decision, they establish themselves and consolidate their positions in the lands."

Besides the conflict in Raposa Serra do Sol, FUNAI has registered confrontations between Ianomâmi Indians and miners in Roraima and Amazonas states.

Miners and timber merchants have also caused problems for Kayapó Indians at Serra do Cachimbo Reserve.

And in Pará state, land developers and timber merchants clashed with Tembé Indians in Alto Rio Guamá Indigenous Reserve.

According to the indigenous organization Conselho Indigenista Missionário (CIMI), at least 22 Indians have been killed so far this year in confrontations around the country.

A CIMI report released in April found that 92 Indians had been killed between 2006 and 2007.

Watson of Survival International is closely watching the situation with the Makuxi, which she thinks could have ramifications for all of Brazil's indigenous groups.

"Brazilian constitution is on [the Makuxi's] side, but if the Supreme Court ruling goes against the Indians, it will open a precedent and all Indian reserves can be contested in Brazil," Watson said.

"Not only will they lose land that is theirs by right and essential to their survival, but I fear there will be more violent conflict."