Cibele Maciel
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Brasília - "We are very sad over the deaths of dozens of our children in recent months. While we are grateful for all the support and help they are trying to give us, we feel affronted that we are not being heard and respected in many aspects of our way of being and our rights." This declaration is part of a document issued this week by the Indian Rights Commission of the Kaiowá-Guarani Nation, in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul.

According to the indigenous leaders who signed the document, the deaths and malnutrition are caused by various factors, but the lack of land is singled out as the root of these problems. "Here in Mato Grosso do Sul, we Indians were expelled from our lands, first by the introduction of cattle and then by large monoculture plantations, such as soybeans. It was a violent process directed against people and against our ways of life. The forests, where we could hunt, were destroyed by the loggers and the farmers' tractors. It was there that we could gather food, such as fruit and honey, and raw materials to make our houses and utensils," the text affirms.

The Commission also considers that the matter cannot be treated as if it were a problem to be resolved by "doling out food to the Indians." "What we especially need are lands that are definitively legalized and respected, without invaders. But most of all we demand respect and justice. We don't want to be once more the object of charity or paternalistic projects. We have the right to be different and free, to exercise our autonomy, to be heard in the elaboration of policies for our peoples," it concludes.

The state of Mato Grosso do Sul has already registered the deaths of eight Indian children this year due to malnutrition.

Translation: David Silberstein