(euskera) (Portuguêse) (Castellano)
A few days ago we denounced the sad impacts that the Basque company Iberdrola has had on the Tupinamba indigenous territory in Brazil. Now we are once again asked to publicise the environmental and social abuses that another company, Cetya (Tajonar, Navarra), is carrying out in the state of Rio de Janeiro against the Guaraní Mbyá people and the Maricá sandy area. Cetya is building a tourist complex for the Brazilian tourist-residential company MARAEY. This complex will include 3 hotels of the Marriott chain. Both MARAEY as a company and the Marriott hotels are presented as «sustainable» despite the great impact they will have. Maricá, in the heart of the Brazilian Costa Del Sol, is located on the coast only 45 kilometres from Rio de Janeiro, hence the great interest of these companies.
We see this project as a violation of the environment by destroying this sandy area and its ecosystem, and as in the case mentioned above, we also see it as an imperialist act, because a foreign company is profiting on foreign soil at the expense of the local population’s territory. In this case, moreover, being the territory of an indigenous people, it inevitably takes us back to the colonialism that was imposed on that continent more than 500 years ago when the conquistadors began the invasion and plundering, and which still prevails, although we understand that these practices should already be abandoned and abhorred, and above all, rejected by the governments that protect them.
The guaraní people, like many others in Brazil and throughout Abya Yala and the Planet have managed to endure despite constant aggressions such as the one we now denounce. To them all our admiration for contributing to our biodiversity and that of the Planet.
Three days ago the Guaraní Mbyá community (Tekoa) of Ka’aguy-Porã began a land blockade with which we identify and show solidarity, because it is their right as residents and defenders of that land, because here we suffer the same development aggressions, the same aggressions of predatory and greedy tourism, and because defending the last vestiges of nature contributes to resisting deforestation, the impacts of climate change and other serious problems that plague the Planet. Their struggle is our struggle.
In the current moment of deep systemic crisis, environmental crisis, resource crisis (including fossil fuels), climate crisis, we must rethink our economic model and with it, transport, tourism and leisure. At the moment, projects such as the one proposed in Maricá are in question because they involve the transfer of thousands of people to that area, which means more flights, more land transport, more infrastructures, etc., which our Planet can no longer assimilate. Meanwhile, it means the destruction of well-preserved ecosystems that function as carbon sinks and maintain LIFE. That is why we also understand that such a project should be abandoned.
From here we also say Cetya kanpora!!!!1
Gora Guarani herriaren borroka!!! Amalurra defenda dezagun!
Ez hemen ez inon! Tourism!!!
Below we reproduce the communiqués they have sent us in order to better understand their situation and their demands.
FROM MONDAY 17TH APRIL THE GUARANI COMMUNITY OF THE VILLAGE KA’AGUY-PORÃ PINTADA DE GUERRA WILL BLOCK THE WORKS OF THE SPANISH COMPLEX THAT IS LOOMING OVER THE SANDY AREA OF MARICÁ.
In spite of repeated judicial embargoes, the company «IDB Brasil», a subsidiary of the Spanish company Cetya, persists in wanting to implement the mega real estate development «MARAEY» on the sandbank of Maricá, with the approval of the Municipality of Maricá.
The Maricá sandbank has thus become the theatre of an ideological struggle between the «developmentalist» way and the «ecological» model that would allow economic happiness to be achieved. What arguments do a foreign company and a pro-petista mayor have to convince that a cement block in an APA is «legal»? The social project to compensate the tourist complex should be a set of projects in favour of the indigenous people of the State of Rio de Janeiro. Is it ethical to compensate, even with good things, something very bad? If it is not bad, did it need a «Compensation Project»?
Such are the many questions raised by the courageous resistance of the people. The answer may be in the photographs. What looks better to you? Put a cross on the photo of your choice… Such was the way French artist Delphine Fabbri Lawson, who had a child with the chief Darci Tupã, communicated.
A few days ago, work began on the destruction of the vegetation cover and the fragile soil of the restinga. The men of the village are no longer allowed to move through the APA in search of the swamp from which they build their huts, and the young Indian girls have been barred from the fields where they find the seeds from which they make handicrafts.
The local fishing and indigenous communities, supported by villagers, academics and environmentalists of all origins, outraged by the attitude of the company and the Mayor’s Office and by the destruction of the vegetation cover of the restinga that is already taking place in the restinga of the APA of the State of Maricá, decided to demonstrate tomorrow in a radical manner:
– The associations SOS RESTINGA, ACLAPPEZ, APALMA that support the fishing community of Zacarias, have called for an energetic protest at the City Hall of Maricá-RJ.
– The Guaraní Mbyá community of Tekoa Ka’aguy Hovy Porã (Mata Verde Bonita village), installed on FSBL land at the invitation of the former mayor of Maricá, painted themselves with war colours and blocked with their own bodies the construction works of the tourist complex. The Nhandereko Institute, based in the village, coordinates the action.
Arenal de Maricá
CALL FOR RESISTANCE
AGAINST ENVIRONMENTAL AND CULTURAL DESTRUCTION!
JOURNALISTS, SPREAD THE WORD!
SUPPORTERS, COME! Defend the APA of the Maricá Restinga and support the fishing and indigenous communities that live there!
The Indigenous and Fishing Community of Zacarías call their supporters, the friendly neighbouring population, the associations defending the Restinga, the Guaraní Yorupa Commission and FUNAI to support them. COME to the Chamber of Veradores and COME to the sublime landscape of the Restinga to oppose the damned works. Let’s enjoy together a beautiful DAY OF RESISTANCE. UNITED WE WILL BE STRONGER !
Signed by :
– Vilson, from the Association of Artisanal Fishermen of Zacarias, who has been fighting the destructive IDB Brazil complex for more than a decade. Keep in touch with him on Instagram : sosrestingamarica
– UERJ professor Desirée Freire
– Professor Marco Antonio da Silva Mello from the Department of Anthropology at UFF (GAPICHF-UFF) and Coordinator of the Metropolitan Ethnography Laboratory (LeMetro/IFCS-UFRJ) who is the author of the book «Gente das Areias: história, meio ambiente e sociedade no litoral brasileiro – Maricá 1975 a 1995» which records the centenary presence for more than 3 centuries of the Zacarias Fishermen Community in the territory of the APA of the State of Maricá.
– Sergio Ricardo (environmentalist and founder of the Baía Viva Movement, member of CEDIND, master’s student at the Federal Rural University of RJ (UFRRJ) in the area of Sustainable Development Practices; responsible for …… basic sanitation in the villages of the State of Rio).
– Darci Tupã, president of the Nhandereko Institute, delegate of the Yorupa Commission in the State of Rio de Janeiro, former chief of the village Ka’aguy Hovy Porã, today village councillor for foreign affairs; soon to be director of FUNAI in the State of Rio de Janeiro.
– Amarildo
– Isaias
– Jurema, cacique of Ka’aguy Hovy Porã village.
– Zenico
Etc. (Darci could show them this to see if they will «sign below».
Attached :
# Manifesto of the Mby’a Guarani people of Tekoa Ka’aguy Hovy Porã (Aldeia Mata Verde Bonita) issued by the Nhandereko Institute – São José do Imbassai – Maricá, on 8 August 2022.
# Letter signed by members of the Indigenous Land Tekoa Ka’aguy Hovy Porã, dated 24 May 2022, in which Cacica Jurema Nunes de Oliveira communicates to the public authorities the community’s decision to «remain in the current occupied lands in the neighbourhood of São José de Imbassai, Maricá».
# Complaint made to Amnesty International on behalf of Vera Xunu, son of Darci Tupã Nunes de Oliveira and Delphine Fabbri Lawson, in this act represented by his mother.
Event number: 20220053930
Search Key: 2412f6cead89287fd268d44de274bf27
Date of manifestation: 09/07/2022).
# Office No. 48/2022 – Public Prosecutor’s Office in the Municipality of Niterói (RJ) – Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office – Subject: Invasion of the Indigenous Land Tekoa Ka’aguy Hovy Porã, located in the municipality of Maricá-RJ – request for action.
# FUNAI_ OFFICE Nº 69/2022/CTL – PARATY/CR-LISE/FUNAI. Letter of commitment for technical support to the Project and Implementation of the Nhandereko Institute, installed in the Guarani Indigenous Village M’Byá Ka’ Aguy Hovi Porã (Mata Verde Bonita). Reference: Process No 08122.000337/2022-66.
# Audio call from Amarildo Nunes de Oliveira, musician, village leader.
# Video of Darci Tupã made today 16/04/23 on the construction site.
# Support the Zacarias fishing community on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CoA7M-KpFnM/?igshid=NjcyZGVjMzk=
#restingamarica #restingaviva #sosrestingamarica
#restingamarica #restingaviva #sosrestingamarica #comunidadezacarias #conflitosambambambientais #maricarj #justiçaambiental #environmental #environmental #apamarica #traditionalcommunities #ods #apalma #acclapez #prorestinga #foramaraey
TO SEE WHAT THE HELL IT’S LIKE TO PLAY THE «WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON» GAME.
The cement steamroller devoted to greenwashing, greenwashing, threatening Marica’s beautiful sandy beachfront :
Comparing with the photos of the pristine and unspoilt restinga.
And with the photos of the traditional Guarani constructions, made with natural materials, in full harmony with the surrounding nature.
This is called ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM!
1 In Euskera (Basque): «Out with Cetya !!!! Long live the struggle of the Guarani people!!! Let’s defend Mother Earth! Not here, not anywhere! Guilty tourism!!!!»
aplaneta.org 