Shouting “I’m going to kill an indigenous person, I’m really going to kill them”, a still unidentified man invaded Aldeia Rio Pequeno, in Paraty (RJ), this week. The case is not isolated. In 2018, native João Mendonça Martins was murdered there. However, the attacks date back to the 1960s.
Today, about 40 people from the Guarani ethnic group live in the town. The Atlantic Forest is preserve in its 8 hectares, still the target of raids and illegal deforestation, it says the newspaper O Dia. The attacks attempt to drive them out of the Tekoha Jevy Indigenous Land, the demarcation of which not has been completed and may cover 2,300 hectares.
The area is targeted by tourist businesses and agribusiness. part is superimposed to the Serra da Bocaina National Park. In the Guarani language, “tekoha jevy” means “the land that returned”.
The risk of new crimes has led the Federal Public Ministry (MPF) to file a public civil action so that the State of Rio de Janeiro, the Union and the National Foundation of Indigenous Peoples (Funai) contain the escalation of aggressions and the safety of that population. “The lack of coordination led Funai, the Federal Police and the Military Police to inefficient actions in the indigenous country. This not only delays the resolution of problems, but causes confusion among the leaders of that community, who do not know who to turn to,” he emphasizes in MPF note the author of the action, the lawyer of the Republic Aldo de Campos Costa.