With ancestral lands occupied, the Guarani must look for employment

Published: 2007-08-09

DOURADOS, Brazil (CNS) -- With vast swaths of ancestral farmland divided into plantations devoted to growing soybeans and sugar cane for biofuels or for export, the Guarani Indians do not have enough land for their traditional subsistence agriculture. "No one eats soy or sugar cane," said Dr. Zelik Trajber, who heads the indigenous health office in Dourados, in an area where more than 60,000 indigenous people live on reserves. Since they can no longer farm, Guarani men must seek other employment. The only work readily available in the region is cutting sugar cane on large plantations -- backbreaking labor that pays poorly. Government and business leaders have touted the benefits of sugar cane production for ethanol, and plantation owners seek out Guarani laborers, who have a reputation for being hardworking. But men who began working in the cane fields as teens are often physically disabled by the time they are 40, said Arnaldo Goncalvo of nearby Passo Piraju.

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