© Aty Guasu/Survival International

Vicente Fernandes Vilhalva, a spokesman for the Guarani Kaiowá people was shot in the forehead by gunmen who attacked his community.

While Indigenous land rights come under scrutiny at the COP 30 in Brazil, on 16 November, in the Sunday morning darkness, attackers descended on an Indigenous community far to the south of the country, opening fire — killing a Guarani Kaiowá leader and injuring four others.

Guns blazing, 20 attackers descended on Pyelito Kue, a community of Guarani Kaiowá people who recently reoccupied part of their ancestral land. They shot Vicente Fernandes Vilhalva, 36, in the head, killing him. Four more Guarani people were injured as the gunmen opened fire and burned down the community’s shelters and belongings.

One of the leaders of Pyelito Kue, speaking anonymously, told Repórter Brasil: “We were surrounded. The gunmen didn’t come to talk, they just started shooting. We have no weapons, we have no chance of defending ourselves. We retreated and went to the village, but they kept shooting…. They burned everything in the reclaimed area: our shacks, pots, chairs...”

The murderous attack — the fourth violent assault against the Pyelito Kue community in the last two weeks — was the latest episode in a vicious assault that ranchers have been conducting against the Guarani Kaiowá for decades.

“We, the Guarani Kaiowá Indigenous peoples, condemn the attacks that took place in Tekoha Pyelito Kue, which resulted in the murder of a leader. Our struggle is for life, for land, and for ‘Tekoha Guasu’ (our complete ancestral territory). 

“We no longer accept being treated as invaders on our own land,” says a statement by the Guarani Kaiowá organization Aty Guasu. 

© Aty Guasu

Vicente Fernandes Vilhalva’s body surrounded by his fellow Guarani Kaiowá.

The Guarani Kaiowá community of Pyelito Kue and other Guarani Kaiowá communities in the region were violently driven off their land in Mato Grosso do Sul state, Brazil, decades ago. Since then, almost all their land has been occupied by agribusiness and cattle ranches. Their resistance and attempts to reclaim the land have been met with brutal and often deadly attacks. 

Guarani families of Pyelito Kue have been forced to live in a cramped 97-hectare area, with little room to grow crops, for more than 10 years.  With people going hungry, they reclaimed another part of their land in Iguatemipeguá I Indigenous Territory at the beginning of November. This patch of land, where Vicente was killed, is occupied by Fazenda Cachoeira, a massive cattle ranch leased by Agropecuária Santa Cruz and Agropecuária Guaxuma – cattle export companies.  

FUNAI, the government’s Indigenous peoples department, delimited the area in 2013, one of the first steps toward demarcation. The process has been stalled since then – in violation of Brazilian and international law, forcing the Guarani to endure violent attacks and killings at the hands of the ranchers and police backed by local politicians who act with impunity.  An official agreement made between public prosecutors, FUNAI and the Guarani in 2007, and recent land demarcation promises by President Lula — have not been upheld.

According to witnesses, Brazil’s Military Police and members of the Department of Border Operations (Departamento de Operações de Fronteira) were involved in this latest attack.

“The Constitution guarantees our rights, and the Brazilian State has a duty to protect our peoples,” says the statement by Aty Guasu. 

“We ask for the support of civil society, human rights organizations, the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office, FUNAI and the Federal Public Defender's Office to monitor the case and ensure the safety of the Guarani Kaiowá families in the face of the climate of hatred and threats that are intensifying.”

Caroline Pearce, Executive Director of Survival International, said: “A week ago in Belém, President Lula recognized that Indigenous lands are key to combating climate change. He said “perhaps” not enough of their land has been properly recognized. Vicente’s death is the stark reality of that lack of recognition: Indigenous people being evicted, dispossessed, denied their land, their rights, their livelihoods – their very lives.

“It is obscene that Guarani Kaiowá — of Pyelito Kue, and of other communities — are gunned down and killed simply for living in their own home, on their own ancestral land. The government of Brazil must complete land recognition, protect their territories, and prosecute those who evicted them and continue to terrorize them.”

Editor’s notes

• Fazenda Cachoeira is just one of 44 ranches overlapping the Iguatemipeguá I Indigenous Territory. The 41,714-hectare territory encompasses many tekoha (Guarani ancestral lands) including that of the Pyelito Kue community.
• Responding to previous attacks on Pyelito Kue community in 2011 and 2016, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights called for precautionary measures.
• This violence is the latest in a series of brutal attacks on Guarani communities. The Guarani of Guyra Roka community — home to the late Ambrosio Vilhalva, star of the film "Birdwatchers" — have also been targeted, with gunmen hired by ranchers  and local police injuring several people with rubber bullets and teargas, and destroying their houses.