Situation of Indigenous Peoples in Mato Grosso do Sul
INDIGENIST MISSIONARY COUNCIL - CIMI
terme
FOR A LAND WITHOUT EVIL FOR THE GUARANI
The current situation should cause us to reflect about the scale of the challenges that are placed before the indigenous peoples of
Mato Grosso do Sul given a reality that is very difficult and unequal.
Access to justice for the Kaiowá Guarani and Terena peoples has been increasingly embargoed in the extent to which the administrative
and judicial actions do not attend to the fact that there is no more time to be lost.
The situation of destitution in which many Kaiowá and Guarani are found encamped at the edges of the roadways has sparked
extensive appeals of organized civil society for a union of efforts to resolve the land problems in Mato Grosso do Sul, by demarcating the
indigenous lands.
The federal executive branch has been ceding to pressures from agribusiness to not promote, with efficiency, the solution to the
demands for demarcation. Representatives of the ruralists [agribusiness and rural land owners political bloc] in the federal legislature
attempt, at all times, to create barriers to the claims of the indigenous peoples with legislative proposals aimed at overriding their
constitutional rights. In a government of colliding interests, the pressures militate against consolidation of political will to solve the
problems that affect the indigenous peoples of Mato Grosso do Sul.
Data from the CIMI Violence Reports present clear evidence of growing indices of violence against the indigenous peoples of Mato
Grosso do Sul, leading the sorrowful litany of murders and suicides in Brazil.
Visibility about the regional problematics is already being conveyed by the national indigenous movement as a matter of “absolute
priority" in the struggle for constitutional rights.
Without the Brazilian government taking firm and effective measures, especially the federal executive and judiciary branches, giving
absolute priority to these matters, the indigenous peoples of Mato Grosso do Sul will continue to be embittered by the sad records.
It is therefore necessary that the state promote a review of public policies that privilege the economic interests that permeate the
region and that make social justice impossible for the most impoverished population, defining priorities on investments and political and
juridical decisions.
In addition to this, the importance that the Brazilian Supreme Court, given the societal appeal involving the question, judge on the
basis of urgency all actions filed in that Court that involve the demarcation of indigenous lands in the State of Mato Grosso do Sul, making
irrefutable the seeking of the final decision on administrative measures of the Brazilian Union that are found paralyzed.
Faced with all of this, we are still able to believe that another reality is possible.
With gratitude to the resistance and organization of the indigenous peoples and their communities, it is possible to believe in a future
of respect for ethnic and cultural diversity, of life, peace and happiness for everyone in Mato Grosso do Sul.
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