AND Exclusive: New Evidence on the Massacre of a Guarani-Kaiowá Peasant Women and Two Children
On March 31, a brutal attack in the Guarani-Kaiowá peasant indigenous community of Avae’te resulted in the cold-blooded murder of a mother, her son, and a baby. The official version by the Civil Police claims that the crime was committed by an indigenous woman motivated by personal reasons, without mentioning the land conflicts with the latifundium. However, community members and a team from the newspaper A Nova Democracia (AND) have presented evidence that contradicts this narrative.
According to witnesses, an individual threw gasoline on the houses of a peasant family, locked the doors with a chain, and then set them on fire. The General Assembly of the Kaiowá and Guarani people reported that the attack is linked to a local big landlord who has interests in the land of Avae’te. After investigating the site, AND found tire tracks from trucks and a boot that did not belong to the accused, as well as a chain that was not collected by the police.
The failure to gather this evidence and the absence of pictures of the scene by the Civil Police shows a lack of rigor in the investigation.
The indigenous people stated that there were no eyewitnesses to the attack and that the area is coveted by a big landlord who has coordinated attacks against them to steal their land and create luxury resorts. A week before the crime, it was reported that goons from the latifundium had surrounded the community and set up a monitoring tent in front of the seized land by peasants. Despite the lack of evidence and witnesses, the Civil Police quickly concluded that the accused acted alone due to a personal conflict, dismissing any connection to land conflicts with the latifundium.
The Guarani-Kaiowá do not rule out that the accused indigenous woman may have been involved, but they argue that she did not have the resources to carry out the attack. They suggest that she may have been manipulated by the latifundium’s goons, who could have provided her with the means to commit the crime. This pattern of behavior, according to the indigenous people, is common in the region, where multiple similar attacks have occurred.
AND plans to conduct more interviews with local leaders and gather additional testimonies about this serious incident, seeking to make clear the circumstances surrounding the attack and the response from the authorities.
