Livro: "Kaiowcídio: Genocídio Guarani-Kaiowá"

The idea of the book emerged after the election of the neo-fascist President Bolsonaro and was consolidated after the spread of Covid-19 pandemic among the indigenous population. The publication contextualizes those recent developments (Bolsonaro and Coronavirus) in the wider historical and geographical trajectory of the Guarani-Kaiowa since the 17th century. Although genocide is a word commonly used by journalists and activists in relation to the dramatic challenges faces by indigenous peoples, the significance of the Guarani-Kaiowa genocidal experience is not casual or merely sloganized. The indigenous genocide unfolding in the Brazilian State of Mato Grosso do Sul – Kaiowcide – is not just a case of hyperbolic violence or widespread murdering, but it is something qualitatively different from other serious crimes. The phenomenon combines strategies and procedures based on the frontal opposition between groups of people who were converted into irreconcilable enemies because of the pattern of regional development and the balance of pollical power. In other words, genocide became a necessity of mainstream, brutal development, whilst economic growth and private rural property are excuses invoked to justify Kaiowcide. In that excruciating context, resistance has been the most crucial requisite if the Guarani-Kaiowa had any intention to survive through recurrent genocides. Kaiowcide is the reincarnation and revival of an old genocidal practice. Only the focus in recent years may have shifted from assimilation and confinement to abandonment and confrontation, but it persists the same intent to destabilize and eliminate the original inhabitants of the land through the asphyxiation of their religion, identity and, ultimately, geography. Although the publication does not target an academic audience only, it has one full chapter on the meaning and reinterpretations of genocide and indigenous genocide, which also proposes a new conceptualization. The ongoing indigenous genocide is defined as ‘Kaiowcide’, in place since the 1970s, when the Guarani-Kaiowa mobilized a reaction to land grabbing and oppression in the final years of the military dictatorship. The reaction to grassroots mobilization came in the form of Kaiowcide and it coincides with the consolidation of an agribusiness-based economy. Instead of merely describing the genocidal tragedy, the focus is on the life through genocide and trying to collectively go beyond it. This is a highly original book, because there is no similar publication on the contemporary genocidal violence affecting indigenous peoples in Brazil and nothing specifically on the Guarani-Kaiowa. Several books make reference to the genocide of the Guarani-Kaiowa genocide, but no publication provides a theoretical and practical examination. The book is based on many years of research on the agribusiness frontiers in Brazil, on the indigenous geography of the Guarani-Kaiowa and on sustained engagement with indigenous communities. One of the main contributions of this book is to provide a robust interpretative analysis of the causes and the ramifications of the genocidal experience lived by the Guarani-Kaiowa. Many authors insist that intention to commit and responsibility for a genocide are more fluid and are embedded in accumulated antagonisms, prejudices and resentments. Rather than focusing on formalist notions of ‘direct intent’ by settlers and governments, as a prerequisite for the tagging as genocide, it will be emphasized the destructive potential of the actors actively involved in agrarian capitalist transformations promoted by the national state in socio-economic frontiers. The book is rich in interview quotations, statistical data, contributions from academic and grey literature, which have all informed the reflection of the author on the genocide of the Guarani-Kaiowa.