Brazil: Indigenous man killed as military police attack Guarani community

A Guarani man called Neri was killed on September 18 in an attack by military police against the community of Nhanderu Marangatu in Southern Brazil.

Three other Guarani people have been injured, and several houses destroyed.
The attack took place in an area that has been re-occupied by the community – it is part of their ancestral land which was stolen decades ago and is now occupied by ranchers, who persistently refuse to allow the Guarani to return to their land.

Similar attacks last week resulted in several Guarani people being injured. Many Guarani people have been killed in the past in this region, which is central to the Guarani’s fight for their lands to be demarcated (legally mapped out and protected). 

Although it was formally recognized as Guarani territory in 2005, farmers and ranchers continue to occupy most of it, and the Guarani are only able to live on a fraction of what is rightfully theirs.