AMERICA/BRAZIL - CIMI delivers a document on the suffering of the indigenous peoples of the Amazon to the Pope

Monday, 7 April 2014

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - The President of the Indigenous Missionary Council (CIMI), the Bishop of the Prelature of Xingu (in the area of Para, Brazil), His Exc. Mgr. Erwin Kräutler, C.Pp.S., delivered a document to Pope Francis on the violations of the rights regarding the indigenous in Brazil. The meeting took place on Friday, April 4th.
According to the note of CIMI sent to Fides Agency, the document highlights the cases of violence that the indigenous peoples are subjected to. "Political groups and economic aspects concerning the food, mining and construction industry, with the support and participation of the Brazilian government, attempt to revoke the land rights of indigenous peoples", explains a passage in the document given to the Holy Father.
CIMI told Fides that only in the territory inhabited by the Guarani and Kaiowá indigenous peoples in Mato Grosso do Sul ( Brazil ), about 45,000 indigenous people have been forced to live in a small area, inadequate to their needs, where every day there are cases of deaths, suicides and violence against them. Mgr. Kräutler points out that in Brazil there are currently 519 companies whose activities have a negative environmental impact on the territories that belong to 204 indigenous peoples. (CE) (Agenzia Fides 07/04/2014)


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