Situation of Indigenous Peoples in Mato Grosso do Sul
+ INDIGENIST MISSIONARY COUNCIL - CIMI
Marçal de Souza Tupã- I (1920-1983)
November 25 of 2013 it was 30 years ago that Marçal Tupã-i,
the voice of thunder, Guarani Nhandeva, was assassinated in the
village of Campestre, in Antônio João, in the state of Mato Grosso
do Sul. Five shots fired at gun point took his life, when he opened
the door of his house hearing an insisting and supplication voice
that asked for medicine for an ailing father. The health worker
Marçal believed and fulfilled the destiny that he himself foresaw
some years earlier: "I am a person marked to die. But for a just
cause, we die!"
He was a member of delegation that handed a letter to Pope
John Paul II in his visit to Manaus, in 1980, and also represented
the Union of Indigenous Nations in UN-conference in Boston in
1981. His political activity resulted in persecution, arrests, and
death threats.
After the accused were acquited twice, the lawyers of Marçal's
family succeeded in having the competence of the federal courts
to judge the case recognized. However, at this time, the accused
were over seventy years old and could not be tried again. One of
the participants was never brought to trial.
Marçal said, more than 30 years ago: "We indians, who
live here are the ones who feel the injustice, the poverty, the
persecution, hunger, because the area we occupy no longer
offers conditions for our survival..." 1
"The green of the flag that the
Brazilians brought represented
the forest that civilization has torn
from us; we live on government
lands, like pariahs, crushed. The
yellow, represented the wealth
of Brazil, the fish and game, today
absent from our land; they tore
everything from us, all in the name
of civilization. The white, which
symbolized the peace so desired,
today is absent in man kind. And,
finally, the blue, which represented
the sky, in its florescent beauty -
stars and planets shining -, was the
only thing that civilization left to
the indian, and only because she
hasn't managed to conquer it, yet ...
"Marçal de Souza Tupã-i.
1 (Prezia, Benedito - Marçal Guarani: the voice that cannot be forgotten).
For Them,
To Them,
With Them,
As Them...
For their lives!
For their lands!
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