Court: Brazil On The Brink Of Civil War

Violence Between Indian Tribes And Rice Farmers Escalates In Amazon

(AP)  Deep in the northernmost reaches of the Amazon jungle, a land conflict between rice farmers and a handful of Indian tribes has turned so violent that the country's Supreme Court warns it could escalate into civil war.

The court is expected to decide in August if the government can keep evicting rice farmers from a 4.2 million acre Indian reservation decreed by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in 2005. The evictions were stopped in April when rice farmers started burning bridges and blockading roads, and justices said they feared a "veritable civil war."

The court's decision could help determine the future of the Amazon, whose remaining jungles provide a critical cushion against global warming. It could also redefine Brazil's policy toward its Indians at a time of frequent confrontations, as the country spends billions of dollars opening roads, building dams and promoting agribusiness across the world's largest remaining tropical wilderness.

Unlike in most other Latin American countries, where indigenous people are fighting for rights in mainstream society, most of Brazil's Indians continue to live in the jungle and maintain their languages and traditions. These Indians have fought for decades to keep or regain their ancestral lands.

Brazil's 1988 constitution declared that all Indian ancestral lands must be demarcated and turned over to tribes within five years. While that process has yet to be completed, today about 11 percent of Brazilian territory and nearly 22 percent of the Amazon is in Indian hands.

But as logging, ranching and farming expand into the Amazon, there has been increasing conflict with the Indians and pressure on the government to limit the size of reservations. Earlier this summer, government anthropologists revealed photos of one of the world's last uncontacted tribes fleeing logging near the Peruvian border. In May, Indians protesting a proposed hydroelectric dam on the Xingu River in Para state machete-slashed a government official who came to speak to the group.

Top military generals warn that too much land in Indian hands, especially along Brazil's borders, threatens national security and could lead to tribes unilaterally declaring themselves independent nations. They compare the situation to Kosovo, which broke away from Serbia in February.

At a raucous seminar on national sovereignty at Rio de Janeiro's Military Club, the head of Army's Amazon command, Gen. Augusto Heleno Pereira, attacked the federal government's indigenous policy as "regretful and chaotic." He even suggested that the army would refuse to remove the settlers.

"The Brazilian army does not serve the government but rather the Brazilian state," Pereira said.

Pereira's comments were characterized in the Brazilian media as possibly treasonous and he was called in to discuss them with country's Defense Minister Nelson Jobim. Both the Army and Defense Ministry later said the issue was resolved, without further comment.

The conflict is clear in Roraima, a sparsely populated northeastern state that borders Guyana and Venezuela, where the government in 2005 officially recognized the Raposa Serra do Sol Indian Reservation after long delays. The reservation was created to protect about 18,000 Indians from the Macuxi, Ingarico, Patamona, Wapixana and Taurpeng tribes who live in the area.

Some 3,500 people gathered to celebrate the new reservation three years ago, and were briefly stranded in the jungle when vandals set fire to a bridge. The violence has continued with each attempt to remove settlers.

"The question here is much bigger than the state of Roraima. It's a question of national integration," said rice farmer Paulo Cesar Quartiero, who has been jailed twice for resisting eviction - once for blocking a federal highway and again on weapons charges after his ranch hands shot and wounded 10 Indians.

Roraima state Gov. Jose de Ancieta has sued to stop the evictions, arguing that the reservation is strangling economic development in a state where 46 percent of the land is already in Indian hands. And many Brazilians - including some military leaders - are beginning to criticize the nation's indigenous policy as isolationist and even a threat to national sovereignty.

But Paulo Santilli of Brazil's National Indian Foundation says a court ruling in favor of the rice farmers would spell havoc in the Amazon, "not just on the part of Indians, but from land grabbers, prospectors and loggers who would take it as a signal that reservations could be invaded." Indians and their allies fear such a ruling would also allow judges to reduce the size of other already-established reservations.

"If they decide against us, it would be the worst thing that can happen to indigenous people across Brazil," said Macuxi chief Pedro Raposa da Silva. He added that angry Indians could carry out the evictions themselves if the court decides against them.

Officially, the government sides with the Indians.

"Those people (the settlers) think their contribution to the economy, and their control of the local institutions make them right," said Justice Minister Tarso Genro, who also oversees indigenous affairs. "They are mistaken."

But some Supreme Court justices already are indicating they don't agree.

"If we take the concept of prior occupation too far," said Supreme Court Justice Marco Aurelio Mello, "we will have to hand my marvelous city of Rio de Janeiro over to the Indians."

[jchave2]

meanbiker...should be more like idiotbiker....

so you are for a civil war, where, if you had paid attention in school, which you did not, or are just so bitter about not achieving your "lot" in life that the only way you feel happy is thorugh death and hate, you would know that civil war is logical only for very extreme situations. "I want illegal immigration to stop", you F''n ***, why dont you start by busting your neighbors, & businesses around your stupid apartment, your dad, you cousins and the rest of your inbred family and friends from hiring illegals to do the jobs that your buscuit eating white trash pieces of *** family that raised you hire to save 30.00 a month. The US started this slaved labor, has built the country on the backs of africans first, irish & itlalian after and finally mexicans so you could go to the licor store and buy your stupid 18pk, and your dumb crack pipe at a cheap price. The US (we) dont have a LEG to stand on. We have created this, we took out 600,000 Irakis & 4000 young Americans (not to mention that we crippled 40,000), for NO REASON, we eat OIL like pigs and are so out of touch with reality that we breed losers like you so you can comment.

Go jump off a clif meanbiker...mean biker, what a stupid non sensisical name with no clue of wit. Just lay down and go to sleep.
Im so sick of all you babies complaining about illegal immigration...get your stupid lazy computer playing son to go pick some tomatoes in 120 degree heat

[texlandrover]

We should be on the side of the RAINFOREST. Who gives a rats a$$ about the turds who are messing it up. I hope they kill each other ... be like nature taking its course. Too poetic...

[barbaraf4]

Obviously the US will enter into this Civil War. I''m just trying to figure out which side we will be on.

[meanbiker]

I just wish this would happen in Mexico so it would slow down the flow of Illegals..

[top88dog]

Time to arm the Indians. No, I''m not against the white man, I am for nature and against greed. The Amazon is the lungs of the planet! If I had money, I would arm and train the Indians. Maybe guerrilla warfare would help. I t would actually be lawful because it is there land.

[top88dog]

Time to arm the Indians. No, I''m not against the white man, I am for nature and against greed. The Amazon is the lungs of the planet! If I had money, I would arm and train the Indians. Maybe guerrilla warfare would help. I t would actually be lawful because it is there land.

[avigil2]

Hasn''t man learned nothing from our past histories when conquering other lands?

[superdem]

We, the United States of America, killed our Indians, and put the survivors in reservations on the nastiest, least productive, crappiest land no white man would want. We also support Israel, built on land stolen from its inhabitants, who also live in terrible reservations all over the Middle East. So we don''t have any credibility on this issue. The world should support the Indians, if only out of selfish reasons. The settlers destroy the Amazon. But if a buck is to be made, the Indians and the world will lose.

[talkingham]

Those indians are toast, but you''d think the idiots in Peru or Brazil could understand that the biodiversity they are destroying cannot be replaced whereas rice can be grown anywhere where it rains all the time.

[bobnjersey]

[Brazil''s 1988 constitution declared that all Indian ancestral lands must be demarcated and turned over to tribes within five years. While that process has yet to be completed, today about 11 percent of Brazilian territory and nearly 22 percent of the Amazon is in Indian hands. ]

sounds like brazil needs their very own andrew jackson.

[far_middle]

Same old story...it''s all about money, land, power...all of those things that we can''t take with us. It''s not about religion, but about spirituality. Why should these people not be allowed to live the life they have lived for thousands of years? Do they really need new sneakers and ipods? Do we? Although the majority of the Co2 exchange happens in the oceans, the rain forests are important. Every blade of grass is important. Every life sacred. How can we kill each other over rice? I knew a man that was killed for 37 cents. Where have our priorities gone? There might not be an afterlife. Who cares? What are we doing NOW?

[caliguy55]

Americans should be put in one country and have christianity as their religion. Then we kill and burn the atheists for fuel. Everyone would be happy!

__________________________________________

This person is really a christian. I''m sure he believes that somewhere in that tattered old history book known as the bible there is something that justifies the killing of human beings. Well, as someone who does believe in Jesus Christ, I say screw him and screw his god.

[mecury69]

"Instead of planting more trees, CHOP THEM ALL DOWN!!!"

Hey Mr. Wizard....how does the planet then convert carbon dioxide to oxygen?

[six-six-seis]

Dear Lord, Save me from your Followers...

[six-six-seis]

Dear Lord, Save me from your Followers...

[six-six-seis]

Dear Lord, Save me from your Followers...

[tootall10142]

SOME OF YOU PEOPLE CONTINUE TO SHOW THE WORLD YOUR IGNORANCE IN EVERY WORD POSTED. ONCE ITS GONE IT CANT BE RECLAIMED.READ UP ON THE CAUSE AND EFFECT AND YOU MIGHT CHANGE YOUR MIND IF YOU HAVE ANY COMPASSION FOR THE FUTURE.I M NATIVE AMERICAN AND WAS NOT FORCED TO INTO CHRISTIANITY.IVE TAKEN LIFE,SAVED LIFE AND GIVEN LIFE.I WONT BE AROUND TO SEE THE FALL OUT OF THE AMZON DESTRUCTION AND AM GLAD I WONT BE.THE CIVIL MAY BE FOUGHT AND LOST BY THE INDIANS OF THAT REGION BECAUSE THIER ENEMY HAS THE GUNS.I SAY DROP YOUR GUNS AND MEET THEM ON EVEN TERMS BUT THEY KNOW THEY WOULD LOSE AT THE ART OF JUNGLE WARFARE. WHERE DO YOU THINK THEY LEARNED WHAT THEY KNOW?

[lynsk]

Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

[six-six-seis]

The Indians should be put on reservations and have christianity forced upon them so their souls can be saved from eternal damnation.


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Posted by GOP_forever ........

wait wait.

maybe the Christians can all be put on the Spaceship
and get raptured out so they leave the rest of us alone!!!

[xmanborg]

jMcGilvray


No Culture has ever survived contact with Pat Robertson and the 700 Club.