Armed men backed by farmers in trucks and tractors attacked Indigenous people reclaiming land in Brazil’s farming state of Mato Grosso do Sul at the weekend, injuring 11 of them, government officials and a rights group said on Monday.
The Ministry of Indigenous Affairs said five of the 10 people injured on Saturday were taken to hospital to be treated for wounds from gunshots and rubber bullets in the first attack in the Douradina district.
“The Guarani-Kaiowa people are retaking land in the Panambi-Lagoa Rica territory,” the ministry said in a statement, blaming the violence on the uncertain legal situation surrounding Indigenous land claims.
On Sunday night, the farmers broke through a rope put up by the Indigenous group to mark the land they claim and set fire to their tents, police said.
At least one person was injured by a rubber bullet in Sunday’s incident, said the Indigenous Missionary Council, a rights group linked to the Catholic Church. It said police had failed to stop the farmers.
I’m not sure anything short of a large, sympathetic militia and/or military intervention was going to help, since the farmers had armed men.
That said, who else but cops would be using rubber bullets? Seems suspicious… maybe the cops didn’t just fail to stop the farmers after all.
Just trying to look at the thing from every angle.