Justice suspends repossession of land retaken by Indigenous people in Douradina, Brazil

Brasil de Fato

Appellate judge Audrey Gasparini, of the Federal Regional Court of the 3rd Region (TRF-3, in Portuguese), suspended the repossession of Guaaroka, an area retaken by the Guarani Kaiowá Indigenous people in the town of Douradina, in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul. The decision was removed on Monday afternoon (5), after two armed attacks on the weekend by big landowners that left 11 Indigenous injured – two of them seriously injured – with gunshots to the head and neck. 

The overturned eviction order was signed by federal judge Rubens Petrucci Junior, of the 1st Federal Court in Dourados. In it, the judge had set Tuesday (6) as the deadline for voluntary departure before forced removal.

The Guaaroka land retaking is one of seven occupations the Guarani Kaiowá people is heading within the Panambi-Lagoa Rica Indigenous Land. The 12,100-hectare area was identified and delimited by Brazil’s Foundation for Indigenous Peoples (Funai, in Portuguese) in 2011, but the demarcation process has stalled ever since.   

Tired of waiting and living in precarious conditions in the confines of the reserves in Mato Grosso do Sul, the Indigenous people are taking back areas of their ancestral territory. This July, there have been three occupations, and the big landowners’reaction included armed attacks, the profiling of pick-up trucks and encampments set up meters away from the Indigenous people, which escalated the conflicts in the region. 

The Panambi-Lagoa Rica Indigenous Land is overlapped by large farms. Among them is the 147.7-hectare Sítio José Dias Lima, where the Guaaroka land is located. The repossession, which has now been suspended, was filed by Laísa and Lana Ferreira Lins Lima.

“Considering the fact, admitted by the plaintiff herself in the repossession action, that there is an administrative procedure aimed at demarcating Indigenous land involving the property that has been taken,” reads Judge Gasparini in her decision, “I feel that the best position is to treat the issue as a demarcation conflict involving Indigenous people and not merely the taking of property.”

Therefore, the federal judge ordered that the eviction be suspended, that Funai be heard on the case, that a portion of the land be reserved for the Guarani Kaiowá community until a new decision is made and that the Indigenous community allow the big landowners access to explore the remaining part of the property.