'While I'm still alive, I'm not going to to shy away from anyone, I'm going to demand action.'
' This is what I most hope for: land and justice... we will live on our ancestral land, we will not give up.'
- Ambrosio Vilhalva
Guarani leader and film star Ambrosio Vilhalva was found dead in his hut on December the first, at the entrance to his community, known as Guyra Roka, in Brazils Gross o Do Sul State,he was reportedly stabbed multiple times. For years he campaigned for his tribes right to live on their ancestral land, travelling extensively internationally to speak about his tribe's plight, and to the Brazilian government to live up to its legal obligations and protecting Guarani land.He fought hard afainst the suger growers in the region, and consequently had had a number of death threats, because he was seen as one of the main leaders of the Guarani peoples campaigns. According to the Brazil-based indigeneous rights group CIMI, 319 Guarani-Kaiowa Indians were slain from 2003 -2012. More than half of all 558 Indians killed in the entire country during the same period, mostly killed in disputes over land with farmers and ranchers encroaching on their land . Lies, theft and murder,continue sadly to be part of the sickness of civilisation that the world's media ignores. Another senseless death, please help carry forward Ambrosio's struggle and message.
http://www.survivalinternational.org/emails/guarani-stopmurders
Ambrosio Vilhalva 1960 -2013
(following clip includes scenes from the film 'Birdwatchers' by Marco Bachis)
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