Major arrests in Nisio Gomes murder case follow “Dying for Land” project

July 20, 2012

Since the UBC International Reporting Program’s “Dying for Land” video ran on The New York Times website, Brazil’s federal police have arrested 18 people in the high-profile murder of Nisio Gomes, the Guarani tribe leader whose story was detailed in the video. Of the 18 arrests, 10 were made just days after the video went live. An article from Times correspondent Simon Romero on the Guarani tribe’s struggle to reclaim their ancestral land accompanied the video project.

The program spent nine months reporting, researching and producing the video in a collaborative effort with the Times.

Original New York Times article:

Dying for Land

In southwest Brazil, cattle ranching and other types of farming have turned the country into one of the major breadbaskets of the world. However, many of these lucrative farms are on ancestral Guarani land. As Guarani tribes have begun reclaiming their ancestral land, clashes with farmers have led to violence. Many Brazilians have been killed, put on death lists or chased off their land as a result of clashes over precious land.

The international reporting program travelled to the state of Mato Grosso De Sol to understand how the land disputes between the two groups are upending violence in the region and to see how the government responds to the land disputes.  The program visited the the Silvas’, a middle-class farming family, the Guarani villages and interviewed the UN Special Rapporteur on Indigenous peoples to understand the stalemate and resolutions.

Damming the Amazon

The Xikrin people are fighting to protect their ancestral land in the heart of the Amazon, as a massive hydropower dam threatened to dry out their river, a major source of their food. Slated to become the world’s third largest dam, Belo Monte will supply electricity across Brazil for public consumption as well as power for mining and mineral industries. But the project also threatens to displace indigenous people, disrupt sensitive biodiversity and devastate the rainforest.

The international reporting program went to Pará state to understand how this project impacts the cities, forests and tribal villages within the state. The program interviewed Xikrin chiefs in two villages, the spokesman for Norte Energia consortium, the construction company, and workers and homeowners in the largest city in the region, Altamira.