More than 500 people have invaded Brazil’s Ituna/Itatá Indigenous Land in recent weeks, opening illegal roads, setting deliberate fires and threatening federal agents. The area is home to the Igarapé Ipiaçava Indigenous people who live in voluntary isolation with no contact with outsiders.
On Aug. 26, a federal court ordered the government to deploy the National Public Security Force within 48 hours to contain the invasion. As of Sept 11, the forces hadn’t yet arrived.
The recent invasion followed the creation of the Bacajaí Environmental Protection Area (APA Bacajaí) under a new state law, which allows private landowners to build homes and raise livestock. However, APA Bacajaí completely overlaps the federally protected Indigenous land in Pará state, creating legal confusion that authorities say has been weaponized by land-grabbers to justify occupation for cattle ranching and other agricultural activities.
The Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPF) has asked a federal court to fine the government 50,000 Brazilian reais (about $9,000) daily for failing to deploy enough security forces to contain the invasion. The area is currently under a temporary land-use restriction order to protect the isolated people living there.
The government has argued it needs authorization from Pará’s government, which hasn’t cooperated. However, federal prosecutors say the federal government can be deployed on federal land without state authorization.
Both the federal government and the state of Pará did not reply to Mongabay’s requests for comment by the time of publication.
In its press statement, the MPF said the Indigenous Affairs Agency (Funai) and Federal Police overflights have detected the use of heavy machinery and chainsaws to clear more than 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) of forest trails and clandestine roads to mark illegal plots in the Indigenous land. It also said fires were started shortly after inspections, in what the MPF described as “clear retaliation and an attempt at intimidation.”
“What worries us most right now is the fire situation,” Helena Palmquist, deputy coordinator of the Observatory of Isolated and Recently Contacted Indigenous Peoples (OPI), who has been monitoring the situation via satellite imagery and field reports, told Mongabay over WhatsApp voice messages. “We are experiencing an Amazonian dry season with the prospect of an El Niño event far more severe than previous ones; this makes the forest more volatile and prone to catching fire.”
Evidence attached to the MPF’s case file includes audio recordings that circulated among invaders, in which a man rallies around 100-200 people to surround the Funai team, burn their vehicles and force them out on foot. Officials also found a state government cargo vehicle being used to support the illegal settlement’s infrastructure during inspection activities, the MPF statement said.
Palmquist told Mongabay that after IBAMA, Brazil’s environment agency, carried out inspections and destroyed some machinery and trucks the week of Aug. 31, invaders set fire to the forest.
Banner image: Cattle graze in a deforested area near Novo Progresso in the state of Para, Brazil. Image by Andre Penner/AP Photo.
