Indigenous Missionary Council in Brazil says attack was cowardly act
A Brazilian Indian in Brasilia takes part in a demonstration against the violation of indigenous rights April 27. (CNS/Ueslei Marcelino, Reuters)
Lise Alves, Catholic News Service | May. 3, 2017
SAO PAULO The Brazilian bishops' Indigenous Missionary Council criticized an attack in a remote area of Maranhao state in which 13 Gamela Indians were injured.
Brazilian authorities were still trying to piece together what really happened April 30 as farmers and members of the Gamela indigenous tribe clashed in an area about 150 miles from Sao Luis. Among the injured, five were shot and two had their hands severed.
"We repudiate the actions by militias in Maranhao state that attacked in cowardly and criminal manner members of the Gamela tribe, who were just trying to retake what is historically theirs," Archbishop Roque Paloschi of Porto Velho, president of the missionary council, told Catholic News Service.
Paloschi said the attack was a brutal reminder of the lack of protection and of human rights violations directed toward the indigenous communities in Brazil.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=post&forum=1221