Threatened with Violence Brazil Bororos Say They’ll Leave Their Land Only Dead

Brazil's Bororo Indian people, who live in the Jarudore land, in the municipality of Poxoréu, in the midwestern Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, have been worried because invaders of their lands are threatening to destroy their village and attack children, adults and elderly people.

The community expects the National Foundation for Indigenous People (Funai) to comply with its promise to hold a meeting with the Federal Police in the community to try and solve this problem.
 
According to Maria Aparecida Toroekure, chief of the indigenous group, the invaders have been threatening them for 20 days already, but since January 28 they began to act more aggressively. Twenty of the 28 indigenous people who lived in the indigenous area left after these threats.
 
Aparecida believes that threats like these are made because people believe that they can commit crimes against the Bororo people and get away with it.

"They think they can kill a Bororo or set fire to a truck belonging to a Bororo and get away with it," she said. She was referring to the murder of Elenilson Batare in March 2007 and to an incident involving her son-in-law in December 2006.
 
The manager of the Support Center of the National Foundation for Indigenous People (Funai) in the city of Rondonópolis pledged to visit the area with Federal Police (PF) officers. However, Aparecida fears that the authorities will not take any measures as they didn't take any in the past. "Before they set fire to the truck, we had reported these threats to Funai three times," she said.
 
The Jarudore land was demarcated in 1945 with 4,070 hectares, but it has been occupied by different invaders. In June 2006, Aparecida and other people from the Bororo community reoccupied part of the indigenous land with the aim of pressuring Funai and the court system to speed up the removal of invaders from it.
 
Since then, they have been threatened and have suffered acts of aggression from some invaders. Aparecida stressed that she does not feel intimidated by this situation: "I will only leave this area after I am dead. This is a legally registered area. We have the right to live here."
 
Five people of the Bororo community from the Sangradouro village arrived there today (January 31) and will stay for some days with Aparecida and her family to support the indigenous community.