Brazil: Indigenous Guarani leader Nisio Gomes killed

On Friday 18th of November 2011, masked gunmen executed the Brazilian Indian religious leader Nísio Gomes in front of his community. Witnesses say he was shot in the head, chest, arms and legs.

The 59-year-old’s body was then driven away. In the same action witnesses report that two adolescent girls were kidnapped by the attackers, two other indigenous were shot, and several injured by rubber bullets.

FIAN believes that the killing have a direct connection to the Guarani-Kaiowá people´s struggle for their right to their ancestral territories.

For the past several years this indigenous population has consistently lived in a situation of human rights´ violations, given their complete lack of access to their ancestral lands and means of livelihoods. The lack of demarcation of their territory demonstrates the lack of respect for national legislation that in turn, has led to the Guarani-Kaiowá suffering from serious malnutrition and death.

Read the Open Letter FIAN has issued to the Brazilian President below