Indigenous people denounce the use of pesticides as a chemical weapon in Mato Grosso do Sul

“We live in the middle of the poison. We breathe, eat, drink and wear the poison that they throw”, says Erileide Domingues, a Guarani-Kaiowá leader. She’s denouncing the spraying of pesticides by local farmers to expel the population from the Guyraroká Indigenous Land (TI) located in the municipality of Caarapó, Mato Grosso do Sul state.

Up north, in the state of Mato Grosso, indigenous people of the Tapirapé and Xavante ethnic groups have also been the target of pesticide attacks.

According to the indigenous people, the chemical attacks, both by plane and tractor, have been happening since 2013, as a Reportér Brasil’s story published in 2019 points out. Attorney Marco Antônio Delfino de Almeida, of the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office, acts in several suits in defense of indigenous communities in Dourados and has been monitoring the cases since 2015. The demarcation of the Guyraroká territory has been before the Federal Supreme Court (STF) since 2014.