There are many signs as to how human rights are being overridden by international food-trade and green-energy policies. This is evident with regards to Mate as well.
The struggle of the native Mate drinkers, the Guarani Indians continues with the indigenous proprieters of Mate being evicted from their land by local ranchers. In 2011, Guarani chief Nisio Gomes was brutally murdered by farmers who claimed rights over the tribal lands. This was not the first of such confrontations and indigenous rights activists are indignant of the Government’s passive propagation in such situations.
The current situation of the Guarani Indians is an unspoken topic in South American society, perhaps as taboo as speaking of Nazis are in Germany. The people who gifted Mate to the world are now victims by those who ruthlessly make their profits from mate. The descendents of Caayari, sworn protectors of the Earth, who once roamed the Atlantic forests harvesting mate and living in harmony with the erveiras, have been marginalized by the colonization and urbanization of their lands, often finding themselves vending artifacts on town pavements for a few coins.
More information at:
In English : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-15799712
On 2nd December 2013, one more Indigenous leader was killed in a land dispute. Here is a video, in Portuguese and Dutch where he says who would kill him:
On December 6th, the car of an indigenous leader was burned by 4 masked man http://cimi.org.br/site/pt-br/?system=news&conteudo_id=7301&action=read
On November 2013 a school bus is burned. http://racismoambiental.net.br/2013/11/terena-onibus-escolar-indigena-e-incendiado-em-miranda-ms/
