Cimi's Report points an alarming increase in murder rates,
suicide and mortality of indigenous children in Brazil
Brasília, Brazil – September 25th 2015 – There was a severe increase in violence and
violations committed against indigenous peoples in Brazil in 2014, especially in the cases of
murders, suicides, deaths from lack of health assistance, childhood mortality, possessory
invasions and illegal exploitation of natural resources and omission and delays in regularization
of indigenous lands. This is the finding of the Report Violence Against Indigenous Peoples in
Brazil - 2014 data that the Missionary Council for Indigenous Peoples (Cimi) releases today
(21st) at.
The report is carried out from the systematization of data collected and compiled on the basis
of complaints and reports of the indigenous peoples, their leaders and organizations,
information of the missionary of Cimi staff working in the fields and reports of the media from
all the country. It also includes information from official sources. The increase of violence and
violations were found in 17 of the 19 categories that make up the report.
According to information from the Special Secretariat of Indigenous Health (Sesai), an agency
under the Ministry of Health, 135 indigenous committed suicide in 2014. This number appears
as the largest in 29 years, according to Cimi´s records. Mato Grosso do Sul remains as the
state with the highest number of occurrences, with the record of 48 suicides and a total of 707
recorded cases of suicide in the state between 2000 and 2014. It is also quite worrying the
high number of cases registered by the Special Indigenous Health District (Dsei) Alto Rio
Solimões, also under the Ministry of Health, located in the Amazon, where Tikuna people,
Kokama and Caixana are met. Only in this Dsei 37 cases of suicide were recorded.
Also according to the information of Sesai, 138 indigenous people were murdered in 2014, and
97 cases were recorded last year. Data sent by Sesai not allow further analysis in relation to
people, status, gender and age of the victims. But, according to the Dsei of Mato Grosso do
Sul, it is clear that this state figure once again as the most violent country in connection with
the murder of indigenous people, with 41 events or 29% of cases.
One of the report's most shocking data refers to childhood mortality. Preliminary data from the
agency Sesai point a total of 785 deaths of children between 0 and 5 years. In 2013 Cimi's
report recorded the deaths of 693 children across the country. The Xavante of Mato Grosso
was the people with the highest number of children killed in 2014, totaling 116. The mortality
rate in childhood (from birth to five years) in Xavante came to 141.64 per thousand, while the
national average recorded in 2013 by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE)
was 17 per thousand. In Altamira, Pará, the municipality achieved by the construction of the
Belo Monte hydroelectric plant, the mortality rate in childhood came to 141.84 per thousand.
Among the Yanomami 46 deaths of children were recorded under 1 year. These people held
several demonstrations throughout 2014, in order to require from the federal government
better health care. Regarding to deaths for lack of health assistance, 21 cases were recorded
in 2014. In the previous year, seven deaths had been recorded.
As occurred last year, the Dilma Rousseff government continued serving the interests and
pressures from agrobusiness in 2014. The president did not ratify any indigenous land,
although at least 21 land demarcation processes without any judicial or administrative obstacle
were still in her office at the end of the year, awaiting only his signature for approval.
The Justice Minister José Eduardo Cardozo followed the same orientation. Nine processes were
waiting for just his signature to be published. Also in the case of these lands there is no legal
or administrative impediment for the advance of the regularization processes in the executive
branch.
In this context, in 2014, Cimi registered 118 cases of omission and delay in land regulations,
more than double of what was recorded in 2013, 51 occurrences. In Pará, state with the
highest number of cases, the non-recognition of indigenous lands is directly linked to the
intentions of the federal government of building large dams, as the São Luiz do Tapajós,
which, if built, will overflow villages, forests and cemeteries of the Indigenous Land Sawré
Muybu, from the Munduruku people.
In Mato Grosso do Sul, state with 24 occurrences of omission and delays in land regulations,
indigenous communities live on the edge of roads, in shacks of tarpaulins, surrounded by
undercover security gunmen and subject to all kinds of violence, including violent evictions.
In 2014, also more than doubled the records relating to possessory invasions, illegal
exploitation of natural resources and various property damage. While in 2013 were made 36
occurrences, 84 cases were recorded in 2014.
The Report "Violence Against Indigenous Peoples in Brazil – 2014 data" also contains several
articles that contextualize and deepen the analysis of the informations gathered. The low
budget execution of public resources available for the demarcation of indigenous lands reveals
that it is not for lack of financial resources that the demarcations were not performed. The
historical institutional violence against indigenous peoples is also addressed in the report, from
very severe cases of violations carried out by police in 2014. A new chapter, entitled Memory
and Justice, addresses the more recent violence suffered by indigenous peoples during the
military dictatorship and brings the recommendations of the Truth National Commission (CNV)
to the federal government related to these peoples.
More information with Cimi Press Office:
Patrícia Bonilha – + 55 61 9979-7059, [email protected]