In Brazil, two municipal employees suspended over threats to poison water — Mongabay
In the municipality of Tacuru in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul, city authorities suspended two employees for 20 days following reports of alleged threats to poison the water supply used by the Indigenous Guarani-Kaiowá people. As Mongabay reports, disciplinary administrative proceedings were also launched.
Investigation into the threats
According to the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB), shortly after the announcement of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's victory in the second round of elections, municipal employees allegedly sent voice messages on WhatsApp. In the recordings, they claimed that only Indigenous people had voted for Lula and also included remarks about the need to poison the water and kill those referred to in the messages as pests.
APIB published information about these messages on social media and forwarded it to Brazil's Ministry of Indigenous Peoples. The case is being investigated by the Federal Police and the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office.
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Reports of violence
Matias Benno Rempel, coordinator of the Indigenous Missionary Council in Mato Grosso do Sul state, said that threats to poison water cannot be reduced solely to hate speech or verbal racism. According to him, such statements are linked to previous cases in which water poisoning was used against Indigenous peoples in the state.
Activists consider the 20-day suspension insufficient to stop or deter the ongoing violence against the Guarani and Kaiowá. After the elections, there were also reports of killings, hit-and-runs, and attacks on Indigenous people. In particular, the home of 90-year-old Guarani-Kaiowá spiritual leader Ñandesy Roberta was set on fire.
Funai, the federal agency for the protection of Indigenous rights, called these reports extremely alarming and pointed to possible cases of discrimination and hate speech. The agency also announced the creation of a working group to investigate reports of political violence against Indigenous peoples and Afro-Brazilians.
