Indigenous Brazil community stays on flooded land
STORY: Stranded for weeks by record flooding in southern Brazil, one tiny Indigenous community is determined not to evacuate what they consider sacred ancestral lands, and over which they are in dispute with real estate developers.
The Mbya Guarani people have been living on this peninsula since 2018.
They have long been at odds with Arado Empreendimentos Imobiliarios, a firm planning a massive residential development in the area.
Heavy rains have battered the region since late April, washing out the road that provides land access to this village.
Despite the isolation, Timoteo de Oliveira Karai Mirim, the chief of this community, says his people are staying put.
"I'm going from here to the other end, over there. It is all we have. We are not going to leave our village."
The historic floods have killed over 160 people in the state of Rio Grande do Sul and the government estimates that some 30,000 indigenous people here have been affected.
This community alone has lost five houses to the floods and the seventeen people that live here are now dependent on donations to survive.
Indigenous advocates say the Mbya Guarani fear that if they move to a shelter they will never be allowed to return.
Lawyers for Arado said the indigenous community’s presence is protected by federal courts for the time being, but that they are prepared to take legal action if the community tries to expand by moving to higher ground.
Amid the uncertainty, the local chieftain remains resolute.
"Why would I be afraid? I will not be afraid because I am talking to our God. The spirit told me to stay here. Nothing is going to happen to me, but with those bad people. Only God knows if tomorrow and the next day it will last."
