\n<\/p>\n
W<\/span>hen the Indigenous leader Teodoro Alves was a young child in his community of Ocoy-Jacutinga, on the border between Paraguay and Brazil, a river ran through it. <\/strong>The Paran\u00e1 River, which rises in Brazil and flows south through Paraguay to the R\u00edo de la Plata between Argentina and Uruguay, once structured the lives of Av\u00e1-Guarani people along its banks.<\/p>\n That continuity, Alves says, was broken in the 1970s with the construction of the Itaipu hydroelectric dam, which submerged their lands and displaced hundreds of families. \u201cI saw the Paran\u00e1 River before the Itaipu dam was closed. Now I see an immense lake. The river died completely. It died with the Av\u00e1-Guarani people,\u201d Alves says.<\/p>\n Seen from above, the concrete wall, 196 metres high and almost 8km (5 miles) long, dominates the landscape, lying across the border between Brazil and Paraguay. One of the largest hydroelectric plants in the world, Itaipu supplies electricity to both countries, which describe it as a model clean-energy project.<\/p>\n <\/span>Itaipu hydroelectric dam, on the Paran\u00e1 River, was built in the 1970s, submerging land and displacing hundreds of people.<\/span> Photograph: Kiko Sierich\/The Guardian<\/p>\n For Indigenous communities, the dam\u2019s construction under the two countries\u2019 military governments marked the start of a deep rupture with their territory. At the time, about 380 Av\u00e1-Guarani families lived in the Ocoy-Jacutinga community, along the Paran\u00e1.<\/p>\n Fifty years on, the Av\u00e1-Guarani, part of the Guarani people living in regions of Paraguay, Brazil, Bolivia and Argentina, are still fighting for justice. In 2025, a Brazilian court agreement secured partial reparations \u2013 including 3,000 hectares (7,400 acres) of land and a public apology \u2013 but Indigenous leaders say the measures fall short of true territorial recognition.<\/p>\n double quotation markThis is not just about historical land dispossession. The Guarani were deprived of territory, culture and their identityEliana Torelly, Brazilian prosecutor<\/p>\n In Paraguay, affected communities have received little or no reparations, as authorities deny their ancestral claims. In the 1980s, some compensation was awarded based on the value of crops and houses on record. But according to Amnesty International, many people say they have received no compensation or that the amount received is insufficient to buy new land.<\/p>\n The Av\u00e1-Guarani lived in tekoha<\/em> \u2013 which, in Guarani, means territories of life, such as housing, farming, spirituality and collective practices. That harmony, they say, was abruptly interrupted by forced displacement.<\/p>\n <\/span>Teodoro Alves (second right) and his family in front of their home in Ocoy.<\/span> Photograph: Kiko Sierich\/The Guardian<\/p>\n \u201cWhen the land measurements began, and the project moved forward, many families had to leave,\u201d says Pedro Alves, Teodoro\u2019s older brother, now 66. \u201cMost fled. Only four or five stayed. That\u2019s why Itaipu says it found few families there.\u201d<\/p>\n As construction advanced, part of the river\u2019s original course was dried out, and the Sete Quedas waterfalls, also known as Gua\u00edra Falls \u2013 sacred to the Guarani \u2013 disappeared underwater as vast areas were flooded.<\/p>\n A map of the Paran\u00e1 River and surrounding territory<\/p>\n These losses were documented over decades by researchers and Indigenous leaders and published in a book, Imagem e Mem\u00f3ria dos Av\u00e1-Guarani Paranaenses,<\/em> in 2020. It says the territory was continuously occupied for more than 2,000 years, fragmented by state borders created across the Paran\u00e1, Igua\u00e7u, and Paranapanema river basins.<\/p>\n \u201cFor us, Guarani, there is no Brazilian, Paraguayan or Argentine Guarani. We are one people,\u201d says Teodoro Alves.<\/p>\n <\/span>More than 30 Av\u00e1-Guarani communities now live in precarious encampments, without official rights to the land or adequate living conditions.<\/span> Photograph: Kiko Sierich\/The Guardian<\/p>\n According to Cl\u00f3vis Brighenti, a historian at the Federal University for Latin American Integration (Unila) and one of the book\u2019s editors, the Guarani today number about 280,000 people, mainly living in Brazil and Paraguay.<\/p>\n T<\/span>he struggle for territorial recognition and for reparations began in the communities. \u201cIf we don\u2019t tell what happened, it\u2019s as if it never existed,\u201d says Pedro Alves. Since the 1980s, they have gathered accounts of expulsions and the official denial of their identity, with support from researchers.<\/p>\n According to the geographer Osmarina de Oliveira, Brazilian state agencies sent an official to determine who was Indigenous in areas affected by the dam, applying criteria that excluded many Av\u00e1-Guarani from recognition.<\/p>\n \u201cThis was used to deny rights and responsibilities of both the state and Itaipu,\u201d she says. The approach was later challenged, with support from the Brazilian Anthropological Association, which produced independent reports recognising those families as Guarani.<\/p>\n <\/span>A Patax\u00f3 Indigenous man holds up a poster that reads in Portuguese \u2018We are all Guarani\u2019 during a protest in 2015. <\/span> Photograph: Eraldo Peres\/AP<\/p>\n The quest for justice gained new momentum in 2015 with the creation of a Guarani Truth Commission, led by the Guarani people. \u201cWe worked together with researchers to document violations of Av\u00e1-Guarani rights. This work continues,\u201d says Teodoro Alves.<\/p>\n Indigenous agencies took the Brazilian state and the dam\u2019s operator, Itaipu Binacional, to court, seeking reparations for the affected communities. \u201cThis is not just about historical land dispossession. The Guarani were deprived of territory, culture and their identity,\u201d says deputy prosecutor-general Eliana Torelly.<\/p>\n In March 2025, Brazil\u2019s supreme court ordered the operator to buy 3,000 hectares of land for Guarani communities and make a formal public apology. Itaipu <\/strong>acknowledged the displacement of Av\u00e1-Guarani communities, the loss of traditional lands and sacred sites \u2013 including the Sete Quedas \u2013 and admitted that decisions were based on the mistaken assumption that the region was uninhabited. It says 447 hectares have been acquired so far, with an investment of 240m reals (\u00a334m).<\/p>\n Yet for many, this is not nearly enough. \u201cThe agreement approved by the court is only partial; the merits of the case have not yet been fully resolved,\u201d Torelly says.<\/p>\n <\/span>Av\u00e1-Guarani Indigenous people stage a protest in Asunci\u00f3n, Paraguay, in 2024.<\/span> Photograph: Jorge S\u00e1enz\/AP<\/p>\n Communities echo this view. \u201cThe 3,000 hectares amount to an emergency land purchase. That is not enough to recognise the flooded territory,\u201d says Teodoro Alves. \u201cRecognition has to become real living conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n D<\/span>espite the developments in Brazil, Av\u00e1-Guarani communities in Paraguay still lack reparations. But Teodoro Alves says rights violations affected communities on both sides of the river. \u201cFor us, the border does not exist.\u201d<\/p>\n Mar\u00eda Delia Mart\u00ednez, a leader of the Ara Pyahu Indigenous community, about 200km from Itaipu, says: \u201cI ask, on behalf of all Av\u00e1-Guarani affected by Itaipu, that our villages be restored. Everything was taken from us, and we suffered deeply.\u201d<\/p>\n Mart\u00ednez is the daughter of Julio Mart\u00ednez, one of the leaders who denounced land seizures during the dam\u2019s construction. \u201cMy father always remembered how we went hungry and cold when we left our territory because of Itaipu. He fought hard to recover the land they took from us,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n <\/span>Teodoro Alves, left, with his mother and his brother, Pedro, who says: \u2018If we don\u2019t tell what happened, it\u2019s as if it never existed.\u2019<\/span> Photograph: Kiko Sierich\/The Guardian<\/p>\n After the forced displacement, communities were confined to four settlements far from the river, totalling just over 5,000 hectares, outside their traditional habitat and without prior consultation.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have records showing that 1,565 people have been affected on the Paraguayan side since Itaipu was built, most of them descendants already born in the diaspora,\u201d says Hugo Valiente of Amnesty International Paraguay.<\/p>\n He says \u201cforced displacement carried out under a military regime and in the context of crimes against humanity is a continuing violation, which persists until territorial restitution or an equivalent alternative is provided\u201d.<\/p>\n The Paraguayan management of Itaipu Binacional and Indi, the national Indigenous agency, are yet to comment.<\/p>\n Amnesty says Paraguayan authorities and Itaipu Binacional\u2019s Paraguayan office do not formally recognise the affected Indigenous peoples or their right to ancestral territory, and any compensation given in the 1980s lasted only a few weeks.<\/p>\n \u201cItaipu Binacional\u2019s Paraguayan administration maintains it has already compensated people,\u201d Valiente says. He says complaints were filed with state agencies. \u201cThere have been formal requests and no response. We are very far from any restitution. The territory is still waiting.\u201d<\/p>\n This waiting has a name in Guarani: sarambi<\/em>, the forced dispersal caused by the damming of the Paran\u00e1 River for the construction of Itaipu.<\/p>\n Pedro and Teodoro Alves experienced sarambi<\/em> as children. \u201cThere were me, Pedro, Jo\u00e3ozinho, Ven\u00e2ncio, and two sisters, Santa and Maria,\u201d Teodoro recalls. Together the siblings crossed the river into Paraguay. \u201cThe crossing was by canoe. The river is strong and dangerous. We took only clothes, a blanket and a dog. Everything else was left behind,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n <\/span>Ocoy village. The displacement from traditional lands has fragmented the community.<\/span> Photograph: Kiko Sierich\/The Guardian<\/p>\n As with many Av\u00e1-Guarani families, the displacement scattered relatives across Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina, fragmenting a community once held together by the river, language and ritual life.<\/p>\n Decades after the dam, sarambi<\/em> remains a daily reality. More than 30 Av\u00e1-Guarani communities now live in precarious encampments, without regularised land or adequate living conditions. Dispersal is no longer just a memory.<\/p>\n \u201cWe ask for funding for the communities themselves to build houses, plant crops, buy machinery or support handicrafts,\u201d Teodoro says. \u201cSo that we can decide for ourselves what we need to live.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When the Indigenous leader Teodoro Alves was a young child in his community of Ocoy-Jacutinga, on the border between Paraguay and Brazil, a river ran through it. The Paran\u00e1 River, which rises in Brazil and flows south through Paraguay to the R\u00edo de la Plata between Argentina and Uruguay, once structured the lives of Av\u00e1-Guarani<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48336,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[492,3160,8565,5155,13738,2752,7865,2282,364,637],"class_list":{"0":"post-48335","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-justice","8":"tag-blanket","9":"tag-brazil","10":"tag-clothes","11":"tag-dam","12":"tag-displaced","13":"tag-dog","14":"tag-fighting","15":"tag-justice","16":"tag-people","17":"tag-years"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/48336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}