News-Letter Nr. 491

Murderers of Vicente Canhas May Stand Jury Trial

One of the most atrocious crimes against supporters of indigenous rights may be finally judged. After 14 years of investigations, loss of evidence and neglect of the police, the murderers of a Cimi missionary, the Jesuit Vicente Canhas, may stand jury trial next year in Cuiabá, state of the Mato Grosso. The judge of the 2ª Federal Court of that state, Jeferson Schneider, indicted four of the seven persons accused of murdering the Brazilian-naturalized Spaniard, who worked in the Enawenê Nawê community. As a result of the decision, landowner Pedro Chiquete, a former civil police officer in Juína, Ronaldo Antônio Osmar, and the gunmen José Vicente da Silva and Martinez Abadio da Silva will stand trial.

Vicente Canhas was murdered presumably on April 6, 1987 inside the shack he lived in on the left bank of the Juruena river, which flows in the Enawenê Nawê indigenous land, between the municipalities of Juína, Comodoro and Campo Novo do Parecis. His body was found approximately 40 days later by the former Cimi coordinator in the state, Sebastião Moreira, who is now the deputy secretary of the organization. His head was disfigured by club blows and his stomach was perforated.

Investigating the crime was a difficult task. The Civil Police officer responsible for the investigation, Ronaldo Antônio Osmar, was accused of having hired the gunmen to kill Canhas with money provided by the landowner. The investigation lasted six years and at one point it looked like it would become another case of impunity. During this period, strange facts happened, like the disappearance of the skull of the missionary and of part of the tissue of his stomach. The skull, which had been taken in 1989 to Belo Horizonte for forensic examinations, disappeared from the Coroner´s Office (IML) and was found by a child in a public square of the capital of Minas Gerais. Recovered by the Jesuits, it was taken to the São Benedito church and locked in its safe, which "coincidentally" was broken into by thieves a few days later. The stomach tissue was lost in the coroner´s office and never found.

Concerned with the long time it was taking to solve the case, Cimi carried out a parallel investigation between 1988 and 1989 with the support of criminal lawyer and federal representative Luís Eduardo Greenhalgh (Workers´ Party(PT)-State of São Paulo). With the help of indigenous people, the name of the suspects and the motive of the crime began to be identified. Next, also at the request of Cimi, the Federal Public Prosecution Service requested that the case be transferred from the courts of law to a Federal Court. Although no date has been fixed for the trial, it has given rise to much expectation. The Federal Public Prosecution Service must now issue its opinion about the proceedings of the case.

New Indigenous People Reemerged in Brazil's Northeast Region

In the municipality of Inhapi, 350 km from Maceió, state of Alagoas, a community made up of more than 100 families maintains indigenous traditions and rituals. They have been recognized as the Koiupanká indigenous people. A party to introduce them was held on December 11 and 12. Together with other indigenous peoples and representatives of popular entities they danced the Toré and carried out the praiá ritual, a typical symbol of the resistance of indigenous peoples in the northeast region. In this ritual, some men are chosen and prepared by spiritual leaders to dance around the village covered from head to toe with a long dress made of a straw known as croá. The ritual identifies the Koiupanká with the Pankararu, a people located in the state of Pernambuco. The Koiupaká claim to have been expelled from Pernambuco by cattle ranchers approximately in 1883, when they arrived to the location they now live in. They are the fourth indigenous people to reemerge in the state in the last three years. The Kalankó, who reemerged in 1998, the Karuazu, who reappeared in 1999, the Catokim, who made a comeback in 2001, and now the Kioupanká share a history of resistance against cultural repression and the need to hide their indigenous origins in order to survive. At present, 10 indigenous peoples live in the state of Alagoas.

Brasília, December 12, 2001
Indianist Missionary Council - Cimi

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