Genocide Today

The Guarani-Kaiowa Struggle for Land and Life

Antonio Augusto Rossotto Loris

Abstract

Although genocide is commonly used today to describe the dramatic challenges indigenous peoples face worldwide, the significance of the Guarani-Kaiowa genocidal experience is not casual and cannot be merely sloganized. The indigenous genocide unfolding in the Brazilian State of Mato Grosso do Sul –“Kaiowcide”– is not just a case of hyperbolic violence or widespread murdering, but it is something qualitatively different from other serious crimes committed against marginalised communities. Kaiowcide is the reincarnation of old genocidal practices of agrarian capitalism employed to extend and unify the national territory. In other words, Kaiowcide has become a necessity of mainstream development, whilst the sanctity of regional economic growth and private rural property are excuses invoked to justify the genocidal trail. The phenomenon combines strategies and procedures based on the competition and opposition between groups of people who dispute the same land and the relatively scarce social opportunities of an agribusiness-based economy. Only the focus in recent years may have shifted from assimilation and confinement to abandonment and confrontation, yet the intent to destabilize and eliminate the original inhabitants of the land through the asphyxiation of their religion, identity, and, ultimately, geography seems to rage unabated. In that challenging context, creative adaptation and collective resistance have been the most crucial requisites for the Guarani-Kaiowa to survive through recurrent genocides, particularly Kaiowcide.