RIO DE JANEIRO – More federal law enforcement officers are being sent to Brazil’s Mato Grosso do Sul state after clashes over land between Indigenous peoples and farmers over the weekend, the Ministry of Justice said Monday.
The National Public Security Force had already stepped up its presence in that region since the beginning of July but will now deploy more agents as reinforcements, the ministry said.
The Ministry of Indigenous Peoples said it had received reports of farmers attacking Guarani Kaiowa people in the Douradina municipality Saturday, injuring at least eight people.
Five of the injured were taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital, where doctors found three had been shot by firearms and two wounded by rubber bullets, a ministry statement said.
Another attack on Guarani Kaiowa took place Sunday evening, the ministry said.
Officials said that in the second incident a fire was set, tear gas used and four gunshots …