Indigenous man shot dead as land dispute in Brazil’s farming state intensifies By Reuters

SAO PAULO (Reuters) – In Brazil, a man from the Guarani community was shot dead on Wednesday morning, a government agency protecting indigenous communities said, as a land dispute in the agricultural state of Mato Grosso do Sul escalated.

It comes after a violent confrontation in early August, during which gunmen backed by farmers in trucks and tractors attacked indigenous people claiming land in the vast agricultural state, injuring 11 of them.

The man was shot in the head on Wednesday morning, indigenous affairs agency Funai said. The dispute concerns the Nhanderu Marangatu indigenous land located in Mato Grosso do Sul on the border with neighboring Paraguay.

Terras Indigenas, a database run by a non-profit organization for the protection of the environment and indigenous rights in Brazil, shows that the approximately 9,000 hectares of land has a population of about 1,350 and has been recognized as indigenous territory.

Funai said he asked the specialized federal prosecutor’s office to take all applicable legal measures and met with the judge in charge of the case.

“(We are) committed to ensuring that this violence stops immediately and that those responsible for these crimes are rigorously punished,” it said in a statement.

“Given the seriousness of this matter, (Funai) is preparing new actions before the Federal Regional Court of the 3rd Region to guarantee the protection of the indigenous community,” he added.

Farmers hoped to clear land to plant soybeans for export or raise cattle to produce beef. As Brazil’s agricultural frontier advances into the Amazon (NASDAQ: ) , disputes over indigenously claimed land have multiplied.

Violent land disputes have also become more common and have fueled an ongoing debate over the movement to limit indigenous claims to ancestral lands in a conservative Congress backed by a powerful farm lobby.

Lawmakers have proposed a constitutional amendment that would introduce a limit on land claims by indigenous communities made after 1988, even though the Supreme Court has ruled that setting such a time frame is unconstitutional.

Less than half of the country’s 1.6 million indigenous people live on about 13% of the country’s land mass.