An indigenous Brazilian people, the Ava-Guarani, are facing a worrying wave of suicides among their young people. In 2021 out of a population of barely 5,000, 20 adolescents or young adults attempted suicide, 11 died.
The Ava-Guarani live astride Brazil and Paraguay, on the banks of the Parana river, in the Mata atlantica (the Atlantic forest). They tried to understand these suicides and organized several meetings. During one of them, Maria Verrarios agreed to speak. She is 17 years old and has tried three times to end her life. “I felt mediocre. In truth I think everyone has their reasons for taking action, their way of suffering. In my case, I don’t remember well.”
“One thing has always affected me, it is our struggle, often it is difficult.”
Maria Verrarios, a 17-year-old Ava-Guarani who made three suicide attemptsto franceinfo
The struggle Maria speaks of is that of the Ava-Guarani to reclaim their land. They feel that they don’t have enough room to live. The Ava-Guarani live in two protected territories of a few hundred hectares, but compared to what they originally occupied, they feel cramped there.
The forest was eaten away by deforestation to plant soybeans in the mid-twentieth century. And then in the 1980s, the huge Itaipu Dam was built and the water reservoir engulfed more than 50 Ava-Guarani villages. In exchange, the state therefore gave the natives these two small territories. Gilberto Benites, an Ava-Guarani academic, who teaches languages in the villages, does not hesitate to make the link between the current suicides and the building of Itaipu. “Itaipu not only destroyed the earth, he killed half of our culture, he explains. These lands were sacred. Today we are suffering from the consequences. We are a spiritual people and we can no longer maintain the culture that we maintained at the time. “
The Ava-Guarani believe that they have the right to more, that’s what they talk about, the “struggle” which weighs on the morale of parents, the one which prevents adolescents from imagining a bright future. The people decided a few years ago to reinvest territories officially belonging to Itaipu. They have set up camps, but those responsible for the dam are doing everything to drive out the locals: they refuse drinking water, electricity, they even start eviction procedures. The dam now produces 10% of Brazil’s electricity, 90% of Paraguay’s. This means that legally the Ava-Guarani are no match, especially under a Bolsonaro government which has not demarcated any indigenous land since coming to power.