Brazil – Indigenous Peasant Leader Sentenced to 15 Years of Prison

Featured image: Indigenous peasants resist an attack by the Brazilian National Force. Source: A Nova Democracia.

A Nova Democracia (AND) has recently reported on the sentence against the Avá Guarani leader, Izaias Benites, to 15 years and 10 months of prison. His crime? To resist an armed attack by the National Force and goons of the latifundium. We reported on this resistance, which took place last year:

The developments took place in the retaken territory of Tekoha Arakoê. The old Brazilian State accuses Izaias of confiscating a rifle from the police and trying to shoot against them. The defense lawyer stated that what actually occurred, was a police attack against the indigenous peasants. During those actions, the big landlord Jean Paulo Rodolfo Ferreira was present, along with his goons. As AND reports, the “National Force acted as a force to protect the private interests of the big landlord against the indigenous community”.

AND reports that the sentence against Izaias Benites “is within a broader context of criminalization of the struggle for land movements. As big landlords use goons to attack the indigenous communities with no judicial consequence, leaders who defend their lands are treated as criminals by the courts”. As AND explains, it is very clear how the repressive forces are used in the interest of latifundium, deeming “the Indigenous defensive reaction as a crime against private ownership”.

However the repressive forces and the courts act very firmly and fast in order to defend the interests of latifundium, AND have reported on many cases of brutal murders of indigenous peasants, with no investigations or trials. For example when two indigenous youth were beheaded in western Parana:

Or when Suruí, Pataxó leader, was imprisoned in an ambush by the National Force, and afterwards goons murdered two Pataxó fighters: