"Brazil: Guarani ‘despair’ as female leader murdered", 4 November 2014

An indigenous leader has been killed in…Brazil, after campaigning for her tribe’s ancestral land to be returned. Marinalva Manoel, a 27-year-old Guarani Indian, was allegedly raped and stabbed to death…Last month Marinalva traveled…to…Brasília…with a delegation of Guarani leaders, to insist that the authorities fulfil their legal duty to return the land to the Guarani before more of their people are killed…Guarani leaders are frequently attacked and killed by gunmen employed by the ranchers who are occupying indigenous land and earning huge profits from sugar cane, soya and cattle whilst the Guarani are squeezed into reserves and roadside camps. Suffering alarming rates of malnutrition, violence and suicide, the Guarani sometimes decide to reoccupy small patches of their ancestral land stolen from them decades ago, without which they cannot survive. Seven communities which recently carried out land reoccupations, including Marinalva’s community, now face eviction orders…