April 25, 2022

10:04

Ívina Garcia – From Cenarium

MANAUS – The complaint of suspected purchase of Indigenous and riverside lands in the city of Autazes, in the countryside of Amazonas, by the company Brazil Potash, was received by the Federal Public Ministry of Amazonas (MPF-AM) and the agency manifested against the company. According to the complaint, Potássio do Brasil would be coercing residents to give up their land and placing company signs at the site.

In the judicial inspection carried out on March 29, accompanied by Federal Judge Jaiza Maria Pinto Fraxe, the team recorded numerous signs placed on the land around the Soares village, and, according to information gathered on site by the team, there are many other demarcations of the company, which according to the report were placed “all over the land, so that the indigenous people do not cut even a ‘stick’ there.

The plaques mark the land as “in use” by “Potássio do Brasil”, however, in the investigation made by the MPF, in the local Registry Office in Autazes, there are no records of agreements or contracts made by the company with local residents. There is not even a real estate registration in the name of the company.

Mura indigenous people

Nilton Ribeiro de Menezes, one of the indigenous people of the Mura people, heard by the federal judge presiding over the judicial inspection, stated that he “has not sold the plot of land where he lives to Potássio, despite the extreme pressure and harassment he has been suffering to do so, and that he is surrounded by plots sold to this company”.

Besides the report of pressure from the company, Nilton tells that he had his land drilled and that Potashio’s workers ride a speedboat inside his property. He states that he lives in constant fear and is afraid for his own life and that of his family. Furthermore, the indigenous victim told the inspection team that the company offered him R$ 120,000 for the lot and put pressure on him to authorize the drilling, offering R$ 900 per month for as long as the work lasted.

Another Mura indigenous person, Jair dos Santos also reported problems with the company and told the judge that numerous times he received visits from supposed employees of Potash of Brazil. During these visits, they informed him that they were carrying out a study on the site and made him sign several papers.

“Potash workers came to see him several times: first there was a person called Tom who took him a document to sign but he didn’t want to sign because he didn’t know what it was. Tom said it was about a survey they were doing there, because Potash would be going to work there, and that they would have to bring the signed document to prove that they had done the work. So he signed it,” said the judge. He also reported the visit of five other people to the site.

The last of them identified himself only as Danilo and was the one who made the threats to the indigenous victim. “Danilo said that if he did not sell, he would lose the land, because Potássio will need it, and afterwards, even if you want to stay on to plant, you will not be able to do so, because the land will dry up and, if you persist, the government will evict you”. The indigenous person says that he talked to his children and decided to sell the land; after all the pressure, they offered the price of R$ 200,000, but Danilo negotiated and managed to get the supposed purchase for R$ 110,000, but without any official record of the sale.

“Everything around there changed a lot after Potash arrived. This is because many people who had land worked hard and helped each other with joint efforts, and now everything is over, if you want to buy flour you have to go to the city”, Jair reports in an excerpt from the document.

Evidence

After hearing the report of the indigenous people, the MPF concludes that there is evidence that the company is carrying out several purchases of indigenous and riverine lands in Autazes, through pressure and coercion, with great damage and food risk to the people who live there.

In the document, the MPF asks, as a matter of urgency, that all contracts, even oral ones, for the purchase of land be annulled, as well as the removal of the company’s signs from the plots and the prevention of the use of traditional territories in activities that are different from those carried out by the natives, such as the clearing of fields and planting. The reportage contacted the company Potássio do Brasil, which did not respond as of the publication of this article.