Brazilian Army Called to Keep the Peace After Death of Indian Leader
Brazilian Army Called to Keep the Peace After Death of Indian Leader
Member of the Guarani-Kaiowá tribe was killed amid a land dispute near the border with Paraguay
By John Lyons
Sept. 3, 2015 4:25 p.m. ET
SÃO PAULO—Brazil has ordered its Army to keep order in a town on the nation’s western soy-growing frontier after a land dispute turned deadly, the latest clash between farmers and indigenous people in the South American nation.
Authorities said Semião Vilhalva, a leader of the Guarani-Kaiowá tribe, was killed on Saturday during a conflict with men who sought to remove him and hundreds of other tribe members from two of several farms that the tribe occupied earlier last week near Brazil’s border with Paraguay in Mato Grosso do Sul state. Mr. Vilhalva was shot dead, activists said. The Federal Police are investigating the case.
The owner of the farm where Mr. Vilhalva was found dead told local reporters that the men who sought to expel the Indians weren’t armed. The owner wasn’t immediately reachable for further comment.
. . .
Brazil has one of the world’s largest populations of indigenous peoples, and conflicts between settlers and tribes are an undercurrent in its history. As recently as the 1970s and 1980s, government efforts to develop the vast and sparsely populated Amazon region put settlers and isolated tribes in contact with each other.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/brazilian-army-called-to-keep-the-peace-after-death-of-indian-leader-1441311906
Here's hoping the murderers, all of them, including the one who hired the assassins, will be brought to justice this time.