Brazil: The Tale Of Escalating Violence Triggered By Unsustainable Development

Countries with indigenous populations are showing an increase in conflicts related to development plans. The reason for this pattern is clear: governments are falling into the trap of choosing between meeting the climate change targets they have committed to and granting land to development projects to ensure a balance in their budgets.

This dilemma is not new in Brazil. The country has been backsliding on environmental and indigenous protections as the lobby of agricultural developers and the “beef caucus” increase their pressure on public policy. Their demands aim at relaxing the environmental licensing rules for big infrastructure projects, opening sales of farmland to foreigners, and loosening rules for approving new mining projects.

Bulldozing indigenous land in search of profits

Expanding the frontiers has its price. Indigenous people know this very well since they are on the front line, feeling the impacts of development. Indigenous people are targeted as obstacles of development, given the fact that 12.5% of Brazilian land remains in their possession.

These impacts are not peaceful nor negotiated:

"On April 30, a group of ranchers armed with rifles and machetes attacked a settlement of about 400 families from the Gamela tribe, in the state of Maranhão, in northeastern Brazil. According to the Indigenous Missionary Council, an advocacy group, 22 Indians were wounded, including three children. Many were shot in the back or had their wrists chopped."

The lines of combat are getting more clearly drawn as brutality is rising.

Which visions of sustainable development will prevail and how can this violence stop? An interesting piece about an alarming pattern affecting Latin America.