Removal of non-indigenous people in an area of ​​Pará causes social problems

The removal of non-indigenous people from an area in northeastern Pará is causing a series of social problems in the municipalities affected by the federal government’s action. The removal from the Alto Rio Guamá Indigenous Land (TIARG) began at the beginning of the month and has a deadline of May 31 to be completed without police intervention. As of June 1, the State can use security forces to remove non-indigenous people who continue to live in the area.

An estimate made in 2010 indicates that at least 1,600 people should be affected by the action. However, this number could be higher, according to the municipalities of the region, which have made trucks available to move families who need to leave the Indigenous Land. They also deal with demands for social assistance and the guarantee of schools for children affected by the disintrusion (a technical term used to designate the removal of non-indigenous people from demarcated areas). The government of Pará also provided support to non-indigenous people.

The removal action involves 18 entities of the federal government, including the National Foundation for Indigenous Peoples (Funai), the National Force and the Brazilian Intelligence Agency (Abin), but does not guarantee financial support to city halls or housing for non-indigenous people. .

Municipalities were forced to demobilize schools in indigenous areas

As part of the disintrusion process, the municipalities of Viseu and Garrafão do Norte were obliged by the Federal Public Ministry (MPF) to demobilize schools that served almost 100 non-indigenous children and adolescents within the Alto Rio Guamá Indigenous Land. The MPF was already making an effort to discourage city halls in the region from supporting the invaders before the removal action.

Despite the indigenous land not being in the area of ​​the municipalities of Viseu and Garrafão do Norte, the city halls worked in the villages to guarantee education and basic assistance to the families. “The schools [do município de Garrafão do Norte] were built out of necessity. In the beginning, they were made of wood, unable to house children, and that’s why they were renovated about four years ago. Regardless of whether the land did not belong to the settlers, there were several families living in the community, they needed access to education”, justifies the attorney for the municipality of Garrafão do Norte, Andressa Cristina Barbosa da Silva Lima.

The municipalities of Viseu and Garrafão do Norte signed Terms of Conduct Adjustment (TACs) with the MPF, which provided for the relocation of students to schools in the municipality outside the indigenous land and the provision of school transport. Enrollment was guaranteed to students at other schools in the region, however, due to family changes, attorney Andressa Cristina warns that there is no guarantee that children are managing to keep up with classes.

The municipality of Viseu had to close, on December 31, 2022, the activities of the municipal elementary school Antônio Alexandre da Silva, located in Vila Pedão. The school served 38 students aged between 3 and 14 years. The municipality of Garrafão do Norte had four schools within the indigenous area that together served 54 students, also aged between 3 and 14 years old.

After the beginning of the disintrusion process, the schools were emptied and deactivated. Only the Viseu school had the indicated building destination. According to the municipal attorney general, Agérico Vasconcelos, it will serve as a support point for the National Force that operates in the removal process. Some schools, however, were looted, with the roof and openings removed. The perpetrators of the looting have not been identified.

Municipalities provide support to families affected by the disintrusion

The area of ​​the Alto Rio Guamá Indigenous Land is located on the border between the states of Pará and Maranhão and covers the municipalities of Nova Esperança do Piriá, Paragominas and Santa Luzia do Pará. However, the disintrusion also mobilizes the prefectures of neighboring municipalities, such as Garrafão do Norte and Viseu.

The municipal administrations of Nova Esperança do Piriá, Viseu and Garrafão do Norte provided trucks to move families to locations outside the indigenous area. Images recorded by local communication vehicles, such as TV Piriá, show moving trucks passing through areas of difficult access, with roads in precarious conditions. There are also images of changes being carried out with the help of small boats, as there are families living in isolated regions.

The attorney Andressa, from Garrafão do Norte, and the attorney from Viseu, Agérico Vasconcelos point out that most of the families that are receiving support from the city halls to leave TIARG have the characteristic of practicing subsistence agriculture. “These are families that only had that piece of land, which has nowhere to go. They planted to survive and, at the most, they had a manioc swidden to make flour that was sold in the municipality”, points out the attorney from Garrafão do Norte.

In a report sent to the MPF, the current municipal management of Garrafão do Norte highlighted that it has sought partnerships with the state and federal governments to introduce housing programs and options for families residing in these areas.

In the last week before the end of the peaceful removal of non-indigenous people from the Alto Rio Guamá Indigenous Land area, the government of Pará announced measures to benefit the families. The announcement was made by vice-governor Hana Ghassan, who was in the municipalities of Nova Esperança do Piriá and Garrafão do Norte, accompanied by secretaries of State.

Assistance from the government of Pará will be implemented through the payment of a minimum wage to families in a situation of social vulnerability and financial resources for the purchase of construction material and payment of labor to those who will build or renovate – in this case, it is worth for those who already have lots/land in other locations.

The process of removing non-indigenous people has been going on since the 1990s

The Alto Rio Guamá indigenous land was homologated in 1993, but had been recognized since 1945. The area, with about 280 thousand hectares, is home to indigenous people of the Tembé, Timbira and Kaapor ethnic groups, distributed in 42 villages. At the time of homologation, there were non-indigenous people in the territory and the removal process was carried out in the late 1990s until the early 2000s, with payment of compensation for constructions made on the land and settlement in land reform projects.

Attorneys from municipalities bordering the indigenous land claim, however, that not all non-indigenous people were contacted in the 1990s. “At least three communities in the municipality of Viseu were formed more than 80 years ago in that area. Then, with the emancipations, part of the area became no longer part of our municipality. Some colonists were actually compensated and resettled, and there are those who ended up returning. Others, however, claim that they were not even contacted about the indigenous land process”, says the attorney general of the municipality of Viseu, Agérico Vasconcelos.

Federal government ensures that there are occupants in good faith in the region

The federal government, in a press conference on the removal, pointed out that not all occupants of the area can be considered invaders. At the press conference, Federal attorney Felício Pontes Júnior said that some of the invaders are “in good faith”, since they are owners of properties regularized, for years, by the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (Incra).

At the time of homologation, the autarchy still did not carry out the settlement process together with the then National Indian Foundation (Funai) and, therefore, ignored principles such as the overlapping of rural properties with indigenous territory. “There are people with different intentions in there. And we did not directly execute that order, at first, because there are people who are ‘clients of the MPF’ that we must also defend the rights of landless rural workers, clients of the agrarian reform”, said the public prosecutor.

Part of the families have already been compensated and resettled as a result of the MPF action in 2002

In 2002, the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPF) filed a repossession action asking for the removal of non-indigenous people from the interior of the Alto Rio Guamá Indigenous Land. By 2007, compensation had been made for 903 occupations, totaling R$3.1 million. In addition, 522 families were settled in agrarian reform projects for which Incra allocated R$ 85 million in land acquisition. Of the settlers, 191 received credits of around R$ 1 million. The Federal Court ruled in favor of the MPF in 2014.

Currently, the federal government points out that 2,500 indigenous people are living in the area. In a survey by the National Foundation for Indigenous Peoples (Funai) carried out in 1990, three years before approval, there were just over 800 indigenous people in the area.

Aleppa will accompany the disintrusion

State deputy Rogério Barra (PL) proposed, in early May, that the Legislative Assembly of Pará (Alepa) monitor the removal process through an external commission made up of deputies. He pointed out that the focus of the collegiate will be to act in the analysis and inspection to know if all the requirements of the removal are being fulfilled and if the non-indigenous families are receiving the necessary support, based on updated data and with the forecast of the social impacts that will be caused by leaving the area.

Less than a week before the deadline for the voluntary departure of non-indigenous people from the demarcated area, the commission was officially authorized to start work. It is composed of five deputies and will have a period of 90 days to function. According to deputy Rogério Barra’s advisory service, the first visit to the affected communities will take place next week.

While monitoring of Alepa is not effectively started, the situation is addressed in the speeches of parliamentarians. State deputy Toni Cunha (PSC) recognized the legal process of the situation, but appealed for people not to be hastily removed.

“In any case, we cannot admit that the people who have been there for decades, simple people, peasants, people who practice subsistence agriculture, without any offense to the environmental integrity of that region, can be removed, as if they were animals, with no alternatives” . He also asked for another area to practice subsistence agriculture again. “To support themselves, their families and even produce a small business”, he considered.