The Federal Public Ministry (MPF) is investigating reports of invasions by land grabbers to destroy two villages in the Apyterewa Indigenous Land, in Pará, made by Parakanã indigenous people last Sunday, the agency said.
In a note, the MPF of Pará reported that it called the Federal Police and the delegate of Redenção (PA), the city closest to the indigenous land, after receiving audios from indigenous people telling that land grabbers were preparing to attack villages. On Monday (16), information arrived that land grabbers on horseback had surrounded one of the villages.
“Today (Monday) new reports of threats came to the attention of the prosecutors who are monitoring the case, in Redenção, and administrative and judicial measures to protect indigenous people that are already underway will be immediately intensified,” the note says.
According to the NGO Instituto Socioambiental, after a wave of invasions in 2020, the indigenous people decided to open two more villages in a new area, but both would be close to illegally owned areas and became a target for farmers.
Apyterewa is one of the most deforested indigenous lands with the greatest presence of land grabbers in the country. A 2020 decision by the Minister of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) Gilmar Mendes attempted a judicial conciliation to review the boundaries of the Indigenous Land, which led to an expectation of regularization and a new wave of invasions. The decision was reversed the following year, but the number of land grabbers in the region increased.
The MP stated that the removal of invaders from the indigenous land was one of the counterparts of the environmental license for the Belo Monte plant, but to date it has not been done.
“The MPF sues the Brazilian State to force the removal and since 2009 has asked the Federal Court to fine the government for not complying with court decisions. Conflicts with farmers and land grabbers are frequent in the area and in the last two years invaders confronted environmental inspectors and Funai officials who worked in the area several times, even throwing bombs at them,” the agency said.
Source: CNN Brasil
