RIGHTS-BRAZIL: Indigenous Groups Protest 500th Anniversary Bash

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Apr 19 2000 (IPS) - Indigenous delegates from throughout Brazil are holding a conference on the coast of the eastern state of Bahia, where the Portuguese colonisers landed, to protest the official commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the so-called “discovery” of what is today Brazil.

Some 1,500 representatives of 170 indigenous groups from various regions, but mainly the Amazon jungle, began to meet Tuesday in Santa Cruz de Cabralia, near the spot where the Portuguese came ashore, to discuss their common problems.

But in the past few weeks, it became clear that this week’s gathering would be even more protest-oriented than originally envisioned by the organisers. The conference – titled “the Other 500” – will culminate Friday in a massive demonstration, in which Black and landless movements will also participate.

On Apr 4, 200 military police raided the indigenous area of Cabralia and destroyed a monument that the local Pataxo Indian community was building in memory of the native inhabitants massacred during 500 years of “invasion” of Brazil by Europeans or whites.

The “Monument to Resistance” consisted of a map of Latin America painted on the rocks, with crafts representing the people who lived in the area that is now Brazil prior to the arrival of the Portuguese.

The police brutality triggered a national outcry. No authority has come forward to assume responsibility or admit to ordering the police raid.

Minister of Sports and Tourism Rafael Greca, the coordinator of the 500th anniversary celebrations, is blamed by many, because he urged the Bahia state government to take “preventive measures” to ensure “that the intolerance of a few will not keep the nation from celebrating its ‘Brazilianness’.”

Presidents Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil and Jorge Sampaio of Portugal will preside over the central ceremony of the official celebrations Friday in Porto Seguro, just 15 kms from the indigenous conference.

Friday’s protest demonstration could draw as many as 100,000 protesters, among indigenous, Blacks, landless movement (MST) activists and other “excluded people,” said Jose Adalberto Silva, one of the conference organisers.

In the area around Cabralia, tension has run high since late last year, when the Pataxo community decided to step up the fight to recover its land, occupied for decades by local landowners. Two police officers have been killed in the resulting conflicts and repression, and a Pataxo leader was thrown in prison for two weeks.

The tension increased in recent weeks when the MST, a powerful nationwide movement of landless peasant farmers demanding faster, more effective land reform, held protests in several large cities throughout the country and in the region near Porto Seguro and Cabralia.

Another factor dampening spirits and conspiring against the government’s aim to make the 500th anniversary a patriotic bash is a coincidence of dates.

The so-called “discovery” of Brazil took place on Apr 22, 1500. But Apr 17 was the fourth anniversary of the “massacre of Eldorado de Carajas”, which sparked a national and international outcry when 19 rural protesters were killed by the police, and footage of the incident was broadcast on TV.

On Monday, the MST launched a nationwide offensive to commemorate the massacre, for which no one has been brought to justice.

The three officers who commanded the crackdown on the protest by landless protesters in Eldorado de Carajas were absolved in a trial that was later declared null. After that, more than a dozen judges refused to preside over legal proceedings against the 155 military police implicated in the mass killing.

The state of Para, where Eldorado de Carajas is located, is known for its rural violence and killings of trade unionists, peasant leaders and lawyers, due to conflicts over land. Impunity remains the norm for those responsible for the murders and human rights violations.

A protest by the MST and leftist parties in Belem, the capital of the state of Para, turned into a street battle Monday after a group of demonstrators threw stones at the police station and damaged at least 10 vehicles.

Some 15 people were injured and three arrested in the police crackdown on the demonstration.

More than 60 occupations of rural property were staged Monday, and an estimated 500 are to be carried out in the current offensive, according to announcements by MST leaders.

But Minister of Agricultural Development Raul Jungmann said the land occupations actually staged were far fewer. He condemned the violence, which he described as “unnecessary,” insisting that agrarian reform was moving along steadily in Brazil.

This week around 400 peasant farmers occupied the headquarters of the Institute of Colonisation and Agrarian Reform, the executive organ of the Ministry of Agricultural Development, in Salvador, the capital of Bahia, retaining four officials in the building.

The MST protests have increased the risk of violent clashes in the region of Porto Seguro, where more than 2,000 landless activists have gathered.

In the past few days, the local police made a fruitless attempt, including one violent incident, to curb the flow of peasant farmers to the spot where the 500th anniversary is to be commemorated.

Given the rising tension, authorities are considering a shorter, more contained visit to the area by Cardoso. The president’s planned tour of the area inhabited by the local indigenous community, where the government built a market for the Pataxos to sell their crafts, and housing to replace the local hovels, might be cancelled.

The housing and market project won over one part of the community, but failed to neutralise the Pataxos’ protests against the official celebrations of “500 years of exclusion.”

The Catholic Church, which on Apr 26 will mark the first mass ever held in Brazil, plans to issue an apology for its role in the extermination of indigenous peoples, which reduced the native population of what is today Brazil from an estimated five or six million in 1500 to around 350,000 today.

In the past few decades, the Catholic Church’s Indigenist Missionary Council has stood out for its support for the demands put forth by indigenous communities.

But the government has taken a different route, drawing criticism from historians as well for its attempt to organise a “party” around the 500th anniversary of the arrival of the Portuguese, based on the colonialist concept of “discovery,” while excluding indigenous peoples and leaving aside any reflection on the significance of the occasion.

In consequence, the whole thing just might turn out to be a flop, warn activists and historians.