A leader of the native Brazilian Kaiowa-Guarani tribe was killed days after being evicted from a piece of land in Mato Grosso du Sul state, media reports and a missionary group said Sunday.
Dorvalino Rocha was beside a road where he had taken his community after being evicted when three men emerged from a car and one shot him in the chest.
Rochas, 39, had led some 500 fellow tribesmen to the roadside site after being ordered by a court to vacate another piece of land 10 days earlier, according to news reports.
The land had been set aside for indigenous peoples by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, but a judge ordered Rocha's group evicted until it could be demarcated and former owners could be compensated. The Catholic group Indigenous Missionary Council denounced the "cowardice" of the attack and called for the immediate return of indigenous peoples to their traditional territories. The group said that Rocha was the 38th indigenous Brazilian murdered in 2005.
Brazil's indigenous population numbers about 734,000, or about 0.4 percent of the total population.
Comments
Comments are closed.