Nine indigenous people have been arrested since last Saturday (8), in Mato Grosso do Sul, accused of occupying an area that they claim belonged to their ancestors. Disputed for decades, the property claimed as traditional territory is considered vital for the eventual expansion of the largest urban indigenous reserve in the country, where more than 17 thousand Guarani and Kaiowá live under the influence of the expansion of the city of Dourados, in Mato Grosso do Sul, about 220 kilometers from the capital Campo Grande. According to the state secretariat for Justice and Public Security (Sejusp), military police went to the scene after receiving a complaint that a group of people who already occupied the land had attacked the employee of a company contracted to build a concrete wall and, thus, , limit access to the area. The company would be at the service of Corpal, a construction company that plans to build a residential condominium on the land. According to Sejusp, the nine detainees were booked in flagrante delicto and taken to the Community Emergency Service Police Station (Depac). Subsequently, the arrests were converted into preventive ones. The Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPF) guarantees that it has already expressed itself in the case file in favor of the release of the nine indigenous people. Among those arrested are some of the main leaders of the Ivu Verá community, including Magno de Souza (PCO), who, in 2022, ran for state government. A tenth indigenous person detained, a 77-year-old elderly man, was heard, but was released shortly thereafter, with the intermediation of the state Public Defender’s Office, which provided an interpreter to assist the indigenous people during the custody hearing. Testimony When giving testimony to the state court, the indigenous people said that they decided to occupy the land adjacent to the Dourados Reserve to prevent the carrying out of private works in the area. The group recalled that, in 2007, the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPF) and the National Foundation for Indigenous Peoples (Funai) signed a Conduct Adjustment Term with which the federal government, through Funai, committed to creating technical groups to identify and delimit 39 new indigenous areas, including the so-called Dourados Pegua Indigenous Land, which would include the disputed property. The administrative procedures necessary for the recognition and approval of the new reserves should be completed by April 2010, but the process has not yet been finalized and, therefore, the fate of the land remains uncertain. At the end of the first hearing, accompanied by representatives of the State Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Public Defender’s Office in Mato Grosso do Sul, Judge Luiz Alberto de Moura Filho renounced jurisdiction over the case, referring it to the Federal Court. The judge also ordered Funai to be notified of the arrest of the indigenous people within 48 hours. “In view of the hearing of the defendants, who narrated that the crimes in theory were committed in a situation of repossession of lands in conflict and that there was even a Term of Adjustment of Conduct with the MPF and action in Federal Justice in the face of disputes over said lands, it is understood that the competence for processing and judging the present case lies with the Federal Court, under the terms in which even required by the state Public Prosecution Service”, wrote the judge. Allotment Mentioned by the indigenous people as the reason why they decided to occupy the land, the beginning of the allotment of the area was confirmed by the Federal Public Ministry (MPF). In a note sent to Agência Brasil, the agency said it received the complaint about a month ago. After confirming that the works were in progress, the Attorney General’s Office in the state sent two letters to the construction company Corpal, asking for information about the undertaking. The answer, however, would only have arrived yesterday (10). “On April 10, the construction company Corpal sent a response to the MPF informing, briefly, that “it was unaware of any irregularity or illegality that could prevent the execution of the referred undertaking”, but that, in view of the request made by the MPF, “it is suspending the execution of the works in that area, in order to avoid further conflicts”, informed the MPF. Corpal itself admitted to the report that it paralyzed the works on the 29th, “after becoming aware of the request for information” by the MPF. In a note, the construction company highlighted that since it recently acquired the area, it has obtained all the authorizations and licenses required by the bodies responsible for building the planned residential condominium, and that it “maintains permanent contact and open dialogue with representatives of the indigenous communities residing in areas in the surroundings of your business”. Agência Brasil also consulted Funai and the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples about the measures adopted after last Saturday’s arrests, but has not yet received responses. Conflict According to the Indigenous Missionary Council (Cimi), an organization linked to the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CNBB), the nine arrests last Saturday were added to three others carried out in the state last month under similar circumstances. According to the indigenous organization, on March 3, military police forcibly and without a court order removed a group of Guarani and Kaiowá indigenous people who were occupying a farm in Rio Brilhante (MS). Like the Dourados land, the area is claimed as part of a traditional indigenous territory. Initially accused of theft, the two men and the woman ended up being arrested for disobedience. For Cimi, in both cases, the police action was illegal, since, as it involved indigenous peoples and land conflicts, the issue falls under federal competence.
Agência Brasil
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