BRASILIA, (Reuters) – Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva yesterday vowed a federal response after a conflict between Indigenous people and farmers over land in southern Bahia led to the shooting death of a tribal leader.
The incident underlines years of tensions between Brazil’s Indigenous peoples and agricultural settlers over land rights. Former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro supported farmers’ rights, but Lula has backed Indigenous claims as part of his broader pledge to preserve the environment.
“The Pataxó people can be sure that federal government will help resolve this situation,” Lula said in a radio interview.
About 200 land owners gathered in pickups at a farm outside the town of Potiraguá on Sunday to evict an Indigenous community and recover the land claimed by the Pataxó tribe.
The attack resulted in the fatal shooting of Maria Fatima de Andrade, a leader known as Nega Pataxó, while another leader was wounded by gunshots and taken to hospital, the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples said.
Bahia police on Monday arrested two farmers on charges of homicide and attempted homicide.
“This attack on the Caramuru Indigenous territory is unacceptable,” said Sonia Guajajara, who was appointed last year by Lula to head the newly-created ministry and be the first Indigenous person in Brazil to be a cabinet minister.
Police said they arrested a Pataxó man for possession of a homemade firearm, while a farmer was wounded in the arm by an arrow.
Clashes over farmland claimed by Brazilian Indigenous groups as their ancestral lands have become violent as Brazil’s farm belt has expanded towards the Amazon.
