A Quebec photojournalist was attacked in Brazil on Wednesday while preparing a report on the fate of the Guaranis, an indigenous people from the south of the country who suffer “extreme violence” from local farmers.
Based in Quebec, Renaud Philippe has frequently traveled to this South American country for two years with his partner, an anthropologist of Brazilian origin, in order to document the phenomenon of “retomada”.
In the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, on the border with Paraguay, where he was at the time of the events, fields of monocultures as far as the eye can see have replaced the Amazon forest on land formerly occupied by the Guaranis.
As part of peaceful actions, the latter occupy the fields in order to assert their ancestral rights. They then faced “extreme violence” from local farmers and their employees, testifies Renaud Philippe.
Informed that three Guaranis have been missing for several days after allegedly being kidnapped during a “retomada”, the Quebec photojournalist and his partner decided to go there on Wednesday in the hope of documenting the situation.
Beaten up
Reached Thursday evening in a locality where he says he is “safe”, but whose exact location he prefers to keep quiet, Renaud Philippe says he then met local police officers to whom he introduced himself as a journalist.
After initially leaving the scene, the group he was part of finally returned to the scene to come face to face with several dozen vans blocking the road. All around, dozens of masked individuals armed with pistols stored in plain sight: local farmers and their employees.
“I have worked in many conflict zones, but I have rarely witnessed so much rage,” says the photographer, still shaken by the events.
He quickly gets beaten up by a group of men until he finds himself on the ground, in the mud. His partner is molested and threatened. The duo’s car is emptied of all its belongings: cameras, passports, credit cards. “They took everything,” said Renaud Philippe.
“There is no justice”
The worst, he remembers, were the local police officers he first encountered and who watched him get beaten without lifting a finger. An example among others of the lack of consideration by local authorities for the tragedy experienced by the Guaranis, according to him.
Contacted by numerous national and international media to testify about what he experienced, the photojournalist intends to take advantage of the opportunity to highlight the fate of these indigenous people dispossessed of their land and the inaction of local police officers in the matter. .
“We want to tell things as they are. In two years, we have photographed the graves of people who were shot in the back. There is no justice being done,” he denounces.
Stripped of his passport, Renaud Philippe specifies that he is in contact with the Canadian embassy in Brazil. He plans to return to the country shortly with his partner.