Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
soybeans. Brazil raises a lot of soybeans: It is second only to the U. S. as the world's
second exporter of soybeans. Brazil's position as a major world soybean exporter
benefits from the exploitation of Indigenous Peoples who inhabit Mato Grosso and
other states in central Brazil. And to make soybeans profitable, you have to use
a huge amount of pesticides and fertilizers. The heads of rivers that flow inside
Sangradouro are located outside its borders, and so are most palm trees and groves
of other important plants.
Pollution and malnutrition are the main causes for the serious health problems
the Xavante face today. Cancer and diabetes are increasing at an alarming rate,
in addition to parasitic infections, respiratory ailments, and infecto-contagious
illnesses, such as tuberculosis. The mortality rate in the 1990s was calculated at
87.1 per 1000 - well above the national Brazilian average (37.5 per 1000) and much
higher than the average for the miserable Brazilian northeast, one of the poorest
regions in the world.
9
In addition
,
Xavante knowledge is stored within the complex
root system of savannah trees and bushes, whose underground roots are often much
larger than the tree itself. This is yet another reason why deforestation and the
widespread use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers contributes to the genocide of
the Xavante people.
Back to our trip to Brasília: Scheduling an appointment with the president of
Funai was no easy task. Since our truck was an easy target, two Xavante youth and I
rode bicycles on the sandy backroads and trails to the nearest gas station every other
day to use the public phone. I cut my hair short and dyed it black with palm tree nut
oil to look like a Xavante woman. While the president of Funai was never available,
we managed to secure a meeting with the Chair of the federal Comissão de Direitos
Humanos e Minorias (Human Rights and Minority Committee) in August 2003.
By then, following our requests, Amnesty International had circulated another
Urgent Action asking the Brazilian government to take action to protect the Xavante
people and their lands, and investigate the death of Joaquim Maradezuro.
10
The
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world's largest
general scientific society, had just released an alert, through its Human Rights Action
Network. In August 2002, AAAS had asked its members to send messages directly
to Brazilian government officials urging them to guarantee my own safety and that
of the former president of the Xavante Warã Association, Hiparidi Top'tiro. In June
2003, the International Indian Treaty Council in the U. S. also intervened, appealing
directly to the United Nations' Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or
Arbitrary Executions.
11
By the time 5 Xavante leaders and I met with the Chair of the federal Comissão de
Direitos Humanos e Minorias in Brasília in July 2003, the federal government had
been inundated with faxes, letters, and emails on our behalf coming from all over
the world. The Chair was furious. He told us repeatedly that we were “damaging
the image of Brazil abroad” (
estragando a imagem do Brasil no exterior
). The fact
that an American research assistant was traveling with me from the University of
Tennessee worried him the most: “If anything happens to this American student,
