The leaders of the Pium Indigenous Community, Tabaio region, which is located in the municipality of Alto Alegre, reported the violence and truculence on the part of the Military Police of Roraima during the fulfillment of a judicial warrant issued by the judge of the district of Alto Alegre that took place this morning, December 1, 2021.
Residents reported that the Military Police, BOPE and Civil Police arrived at 6:00 a.m., accompanied by strange people and soon asked them to leave their homes. The families were making coffee and taking care of household chores before leaving for work. When trying to dialogue, the Military Police retaliated by throwing bombs at women, children, young people. Two young people were injured by rubber bullets, even though there was no resistance from the indigenous people.
15 houses were burned, leaving families homeless, who are now sheltered in the homes of other families.
Police agents also took 03 motorcycles, and threatened to burn a resident's house that is inside the indigenous land.
The area that the community occupies has been traditional land of the Wapichana and Macuxi peoples for more than 30 years, but which was left out of the demarcation due to pressure from farmers. However, it is for collective use, where they plant, raise animals and part of it is considered an area of environmental preservation. And to this day, the community awaits the conclusion of the study by FUNAI. According to reports, the elders did not have any farmers in this area. However, in recent years, a person claimed that that portion of land is his property.
The CIR's legal counsel who follows the case reported that the court order was issued by the judge of Alto Alegre, who in a case about the same area declined jurisdiction to the Federal Court.
(photos: Pium Community leadership archives)
The CIR's legal counsel who follows the case and highlighted
"In this process we dispatched with the judge this morning and manifesting in the records for incompetence. We are working to overturn the injunction and send the records to the Federal Court, in connection with the other identical case that is being processed because we understand that it involves collective right of the Pium Community, so it is not up to the State Court to analyze the case.