Thousands of poor Brazilian families are living in wretched conditions
at make-shift refugee camps after being evicted from their homes at
gunpoint by federal forces, some of whom were sporting United Nations
logos, according to sources.
The massive operation, which left an estimated 7,500 or more people,
including thousands of children, homeless was justified by authorities
under the guise of creating an Indian reservation.
Towns literally have been wiped off the map, and no compensation was
offered to the victims. About 400,000 acres of land were expropriated in
the latest operation.
Residents in the Siua-Missu area in the state of Mato Grosso battled
heavily armed federal police and military forces for weeks using sticks,
rocks, Molotov cocktails and other crude weapons.
In the end, however, the powerful national government forces were overwhelming.
Virtually all of the residents have now been displaced, living in
squalor, packed into school gymnasiums in nearby towns. Others are
living on charity under plastic tarps propped up with sticks with no
clean water or sewage services.
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