report
As of: 08/09/2021 2:17 p.m.
In Brazil, illegal land grabbing is to be legalized retrospectively. The law threatens indigenous people, whose reservations are being occupied by invaders with increasing frequency. The Brazilian state often lets it go – also out of calculation.
Smoke rises behind a range of hills as the off-road vehicle makes its way on uneven sandy roads. It is one of the many small fires during the dry season in the Brazilian state of Pará.
After hours of driving it achieves that ARD team the destination: the village of Vila Renascer. A dusty place that shouldn’t actually exist, because it is located in the area of the indigenous Apyterewa tribe who live in the jungle thicket. Their territory enjoys the highest protection status in Brazil by law. But upon arrival it quickly becomes clear that the state is hardly present here – in Brazil’s Wild West.
The area of the Apyterewa is protected – this is what this sign says. The illegal settlers care little.
Image: Matthias Ebert / ARD Studio Rio de Janeiro
Dozens of wooden huts in a protected area
Dozens of wooden huts are lined up. Behind a gas station, two mom and pop shops and a restaurant. Everything was illegally erected on indigenous territory within two years. The only legal building stands on a hill behind Vila Renascer: the control post of Brazil’s Indigenous Authority Funai. From here, the Apyterewa and its territory should actually be protected.
But the officer in charge shakes his head over the fence: “You can see what’s going on here: a village with 2,000 inhabitants. I only have two police officers to support me. I can’t drive out the invaders with them.” He looks annoyed and doesn’t want his name to be mentioned.
Downstairs, in the wooden-paneled restaurant at Vila Renascer, Antoneta Araujo is at the stove, cooking chicken and rice. Antoneta comes from a poor region 800 kilometers east of here. A year ago she and her husband followed the call of the area and moved here. “Our restaurant is becoming a gold mine because the place is growing. Many Brazilians come here from far away and stake out a plot of land to work.”
“So much wealth in the ground”
At the table, Joca Costa is chewing on a bone. He runs the largest store in Vila Renascer and does good business with it. “If they legalize our place, then things will go smoothly. There is so much wealth slumbering in the ground here: gold, a lot of gold.” Antoneta and Joca know that they are illegally occupying this land. At the same time, they hope that the land grab will be legalized retrospectively.
The chances of this are not bad, because under Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, the majority of the parliament introduced the law “PL 2633/2020” at the beginning of August. It provides for the subsequent legalization of land grabbing. Should the Senate soon approve, the criminal deforestation of the rainforest would become lawful in one fell swoop. The MEP of the Greens Anna Cavazzini then fears “even more destruction of the jungle, more land conflicts and an increase in violence in Brazil”.
The indigenous community of the Apyterewa had withdrawn deep into the jungle years ago due to the invaders. Far away from the countless gold diggers who tear up the jungle floor in the reserve with heavy equipment and the use of mercury.
The Amazon is on fire – not only a result of climate change, but also a result of targeted slash and burn operations to gain land.
Image: Matthias Ebert / ARD Studio Rio de Janeiro
A church is also being built
All over Vila Renascer is being built in the hope of legalization. An evangelical church is just emerging. It is already the sixth in the small town. Antoneta complains that the Catholic priest does not want to come because the country has been illegally occupied. That is why there is neither a health station nor a state school.
To change that, the spokesman for the squatters, Paulo Viscente Lima, is not only placing his hopes on Jair Bolsonaro’s legislative initiative. He is also fighting for the full legalization of Vila Renascer in court. The Apyterewa indigenous reserve, which was designated a long time ago, is too big and needs to be reduced, says Paulo. “The report, which forms the basis for the reserve, has to be checked again. Because we want to live somewhere. It must be possible on this soil.”
Stronghold of the Bolsonaro voters
The mayor of the neighboring municipality of São Felix do Xingu supports the efforts to retrospectively legalize Vila Renascer. Because that would bring her additional votes and tax revenue. She agreed to an interview on the phone. Shortly before the meeting, we received a rejection.
The area in the Brazilian state of Pará is considered a Bolsonaro stronghold. In 2018, 60 percent voted for the president. His election campaign promise was to open up indigenous reserves for economic use. Many cattle breeders and gold diggers see their hour after years – including shop owner Joca Costa.
He’s already doing good business thanks to the gold diggers. Again and again some of them stop in front of his shop and stock up on groceries, tools and engine oil for their chainsaws. Then they drive their off-road vehicles deep into the jungle, the protection of which enjoys constitutional status. But nobody stops them in Brazil’s Wild West.