Land, territory, and Latin America: the challenge of cultivating hope

• Autor(a) principal: Marques, Gilberto de Souza
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por; eng
• Título da fonte: Revista Katálysis (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/katalysis/article/view/83160

While this issue of Revista Katálysis was being prepared, in Jacareacanga – Southwest of Pará,bordering the states of Amazonas and Mato Grosso in Brazil – on May 26, 2021, an audio recordingwas being disseminated on local social media, quickly reaching other regions. The audio messagestated: “They arrived at my house. They’ll burn everything here. A very large group.” The voice wasthat of Maria Leusa Munduruku, an indigenous leader, who faced loggers, farmers, and, more recently,illegal miners to defend her people’s territory. Her family home was burned down. Shots were fired,but Maria Leusa managed to protect herself.Before heading to the village, the miners had confronted the federal police who were in the regionto fight illegal gold mining. They tried to expel the police and the personnel of IBAMA (the Braziliangovernment environmental protection agency) from the city. In 2020, Jacareacanga had witnessed the“day of fire”, when landowners and land grabbers set a large number of fires in the forest.