Brazil: Guarani-Kaiowa indigenous people resist the siege and harassment from latifundium

Hereby we publish a resume of an article published in A Nova Democracia (AND).

AND reports on the harassment and siege by the latifundists and their troops against against the indigenous people in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul. AND has sent journalists to report from the ground. Since last week Guarani-Kaiowa families live in a territory retaken from the latifundium. The indigenous manage their own protection and self-defense facing the attack from the goons of the latifundium.

The latifundium servants are constantly surveilling the arrivals to the retaken territory by the indigenous. In fact, the own AND journalists were surveilled. The latifundium deploys a wide range of means to control the territory, including drones and helicopters.

The peasants are not frightened, despite the big landlords attacked the territory by burning plantations and robbing properties from the peasants as a part of the war against them. The peasants have erected barricades and vigilance posts and they surveil their territory. The latifundium has the government protection and the National Force is deployed in the area and is even joining the harassment operations against the peasants, for example attempting to disrupt with big lights the peasants when they try to sleep. AND reports that “The government says the National Force was sent to protect the Guarani-Kaiowa indigenous, but the activists do not agree: they say the National Force is a proved ally of the latifundists and support the repression against the indigenous struggle for land.”

All of this is useless and during the reportage itself by AND, the Guarani-Kaiowa youth carry out a mobilization to make clear that they will continue struggling. The indigenous peasant leaders strongly affirm: “We are struggling for our land. We are struggling for our right. Because of that all the youth we are here. And we will struggle until the end, until conquer the land.”