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Brazilian farmers face charges over shooting of Kaiowa people, private militias
By Alex Spengler and Izabela Sanchez
Caarapo, Brazil: Five farmers have been kept in pre-trial detention since August in connection with a shooting that nearly killed a boy from an indigenous tribe in the remote state of Mato Grosso do Sul.
Josiel Benites, 12, was shot twice in the belly in June, during a dispute that claimed the life of 26-year-old indigenous health worker Clodiode Aguile Rodrigues dos Santos.
The arrests are part of an investigation into crimes against indigenous communities and private farmers' militias in the state, near the border with Paraguay, which accounts for more than half of all reported murders among the Brazilian indigenous population.
An August Fairfax Media expose revealed the deadly violence inflicted on the Guarani-Kaiowa people who are fighting for demarcation of privately owned farmland adjacent to indigenous reserves.
Kaiowa boy Josiel Benites, 12, was shot twice during a confrontation with farmers.Credit: Alex Spengler
The arrests of Jesus Camacho, Eduardo Yoshio Tomonaga, Nelson Buainain Filho, Dionei Guedin and Virgilio Mettifogo, who Fairfax Media interviewed after the incident, are unprecedented and a direct result of the Brazilian Attorney-General's department's taskforce Ava Guarani, which aims to curb violence and ensure justice for the indigenous community.
Mr Mettifogo told Fairfax Media he had been involved in the Yvu Farm attacks but denied using firearms.
An average of 68 tribespeople are assassinated every year in Brazil, according to the report Violence Against Indigenous Peoples in Brazil - 2015 data, released last month in the capital Brasilia by the Catholic Indigenous Missionary Council.
The report claims Mato Grosso do Sul accounts for most of the murders: 426 from 2003 to 2015, and 36 last year alone.
Arrested: Farmer Virgilio Mettifogo doesn't want his purchased land to be designated part of Indian territory.Credit: Alex Spengler
The office of the Federal Public Prosecutor released a statement saying the arrests were made to "prevent future similar attacks and to preserve public order".
Police found 11 firearms, include some matching the one used in Santo's murder, and 310 rounds of ammunition in the homes of the accused.
Brazil's Kaiowa indigenous people mourn the death of Clodiode Aguile Rodrigues dos Santos, who was shot dead by farmers in western Brazil.
The 11-month-old taskforce has so far accused 12 people in connection with the violence against the Guarani-Kaiowa and another tribe, the Nandeva people.
The farmers face charges of arson, kidnapping, and training of private militias. Some also face murder charges.
Maguidiode, a young Kaiowa, recounts the shooting that killed Santos. Credit: Alex Spengler
Earlier this month, a crop-dusting pilot was accused of spraying prohibited chemicals too close to a Kaiowa indigenous community.
Helped by smartphone footage taken by tribespeople, authorities concluded the plane sprayed within less than 12 metres of Kaiowa homes. The legal limit is 500 metres. They said children and adults were treated for headaches, sore throats, fever and diarrhoea following the spraying.
Guarani-Kaiowa people at the gate on their land on the Dourados reservation in 1998.Credit: AP
In 2013, a fundraising event called Action of Resistance raised 1 million reais ($410,000) to fight indigenous "incursions", including money for hiring armed men.
Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, published a report on indigenous affairs in Brazil after visiting the Kaiowa in March. She urged the Brazilian government to expedite indigenous land demarcation to prevent further violence.
Kaiowa tribespeople at Tey Kue reserve, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil.Credit: Alex Spengler
"Community members in Mato Grosso do Sul showed the Special Rapporteur bullet wounds on their bodies and took her to places where family members had been killed," her report stated.
"They also recounted incidents of arbitrary arrests and criminalisation of their leaders … Likewise in Bahia [state], the Special Rapporteur received detailed accounts of torture and arbitrary arrests.
"Staff and members of the Government and civil society organisations working with indigenous peoples also provided her with disturbing accounts of a regular pattern of threats and intimidation by state and private actors."