Givaldo Santos, vice-chief of the Kaiowá and Guarani community in Taquaperi, was shot dead on May 1st inside the Taquaperi Reserve.His killing came amid longstanding land disputes, overcrowding in the reserve, and recent police operations linked to contested territory.Santos had reportedly been seeking accountability after a collision on the same highway killed two Indigenous people, including a 12-year-old boy.He leaves behind a wife, five children, and a community still seeking answers about his death.
The MS-289 runs through the Taquaperi Reserve in southern Mato Grosso do Sul, between Coronel Sapucaia and Amambai. For the Kaiowá and Guarani, it is both a road and a reminder of the land disputes that have shaped life there for generations. It passes through territory where thousands of indigenous people live crowded into a reserve established nearly a century ago, while many of their traditional lands remain outside its boundaries.
Violence has long accompanied these disputes. Over the past two decades, Kaiowá and Guarani communities have endured killings, threats, evictions, and recurring confrontations linked to efforts to reclaim ancestral territories. The conflicts have stretched across generations of leaders, officials, ranchers and judges.
