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The Cerrado is the second largest biome in Brazil and the most biodiverse tropical savanna on the planet, including nearly a thousand species of birds and three hundred species of mammals.[1] Covering two million square kilometers, it encompasses a complex ecological system that includes grasslands, bushed fields, prairies, and tropical forests. Situated on the central plateau of South America, it is one of the oldest biogeographical systems on the planet, having emerged during the Cenozoic period some thirty to forty million years ago.
[Image description: Degraded pasture in Brazilian Cerrado with termite mounds.]
The Guarani Kaiowá and Guarani Nhandeva are two Indigenous groups historically connected to Mato Grosso do Sul, particularly the Serra Brava region in the Cerrado. Archaeological evidence indicates that the Guarani have inhabited this area since the Portuguese invasion in 1492, and the existence of the Guarani in the national territory since at least 1000 AD. There were many more Kaiowá and Nhandeva people living there in the past, but the political interference and financial interests of non-Indigenous groups have destroyed a significant portion of the territory. Today, they are reclaiming 2,300 hectares of their original 4,000-hectare territory. Those who have fought for their ancestral land have faced extreme violence, particularly since the onset of Brazil’s military dictatorship on April 1, 1964, when U.S.-backed military generals overthrew President João Goulart and seized control of the country.
The 21-year dictatorship was marked by widespread human rights abuses, including killings, torture, and attacks on labor rights. Voting was suspended, political parties were dissolved, newspapers were censored, and workers faced arrest or dismissal for demanding fair wages. Suspected communists and revolutionaries were imprisoned, tortured, or executed. The dictatorship’s impact extended beyond politics, severely harming both Indigenous communities and the environment. The Cerrado was among the biomes most devastated, as the regime accelerated resource exploitation—an assault rooted in Portuguese colonial rule.
In 1979, the military government divided the former state of Mato Grosso into two territories: the northern part retained the name Mato Grosso, while the southern part became the new state of Mato Grosso do Sul. This new state was intentionally designed to support the expansion of agrobusiness, serving as a testing ground for implementing and enhancing the agricultural industry.[2]
[Image description: A map showing the six major biomes in Brazil: Amazon, Cerrado, Caatinga, Pantanal, Atlantic Forest, and Pampa. The Cerrado is highlighted in brown.]
[Image description: South America and Brazilian map showing Mato Grosso do Sul and the Cerrado and Pantanal area.]
The rationale behind this move was tied to a surplus of chemical products left over from World War II—like glyphosate-based herbicides, DDT, and 2,4D herbicides—originally intended for use in armaments and equipment. The government saw an opportunity to repurpose these materials to be something productive and profitable. The largest amount of these chemical products was located in Mato Grosso do Sul, which sits on both Cerrado and Pantanal. The state was strategically created to exploit this leftover material for profit, aligning with the so-called “Green Revolution package”—an agricultural modernization agenda driven by the United States.[3]
Government investments focused on agrobusiness. Surplus chemicals were converted into pesticides, fertilizers, and other synthetic inputs to boost agricultural production. This strategy involved not only mobilizing production, but also significant investments in research. The Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation), or Embrapa for short, was established in 1972 with the mission of helping the government test and prove the efficacy of chemicals and high-yielding hybrid seeds, in order to disseminate U.S. agricultural models across Brazil.
The “Green Revolution” aimed to modernize Brazil’s agricultural policy in line with the so-called “economic miracle” and to protect the population from “communist threat.” The dictatorial government feared that the population would join the progressivist wave that was emerging in Latin America, so it sought to prove its value through economic and productive “development.” Embrapa was an important part of this plan, beginning its research on the Cerrado in Mato Grosso do Sul in 1977. Since then, it has contributed to massive environmental exploitation in the region, by working on ways to benefit agrobusiness, even at the cost of killing and displacing Guarani Kaiowá and Nhandeva, whose Indigenous lands were illegally occupied and converted to monoculture plantation and cattle pastures.[4]
One striking example of how the agrobusiness poses serious threats to Indigenous peoples in Mato Grosso do Sul is the story of Tupã’Y, or Marçal de Souza, a Guarani Nhandeva leader. In 1983, he was murdered at his home by a capanga (a henchman) called Rômulo Gamarra, who had followed the orders of the landowner Líbero Monteiro de Lima. Tupã’Y was not only a symbolic figure to the Guarani Nhandeva but was also an appointed spokesman of Indigenous peoples from all over the country. The landowners invaded Indigenous lands to raise cattles and Tupã’Y fought back, rallying the Indigenous to resist such violent encroachment and defend their ancestral lands.
The dictatorial government saw Tupã’Y as a “subversive” figure. He had questioned and pointed out corruption in organizations created and controlled by the regime, such as the SPI (Serviço de Proteção ao Índio, or Indian Protection Service) and the FUNAI (Fundação Nacional do Índio, or National Indigenous Foundation). Moreover, he publicly exposed the unauthorized sale of timber, maté (Indigenous traditional herbs), and cattle, as well as the trafficking of Indigenous girls for sexual exploitation. He reported the dire living conditions of the Guarani Nhandeva and Kaiowá who were deprived of resources due to the destruction of their territory, all while the bureaucracy of these organizations systematically prevented the Indigenous peoples from accessing basic needs through official means. For exposing these injustices, Tupã’Y was persecuted and beaten, while the landowner Líbero Monteiro de Lima was never convicted for the death of Tupã’Y and died unpunished.
[Image description: Portrait of Tupã’Y, or Marçal de Souza.]
Today, Mato Grosso do Sul is a state severely affected by drought caused by deforestation and intentional burning. The state registered a recent change to desert climate with critical humidity, and the wildfires in 2024 increased by a staggering 2,362% compared to the previous year, jeopardizing the environment, wildlife, and public health. The contamination of the soil, rivers, and water tables is alarming, and even rainfall is contaminated because of the widespread use of pesticides and other chemicals in the agricultural industry. Pesticides are also being used as a weapon, dispersed from airplanes and drones over Indigenous lands. Adding to these challenges is the looming threat of the “Marco Temporal,” a legal thesis under consideration in Congress that argues that Indigenous people can only claim territory if they were physically present on their lands on October 5th, 1988, at the time of the Federal Constitution’s ratification. This thesis is highly contentious and arbitrary, as many Indigenous communities, like the Guarani Kaiowá and Nhandeva, had to flee their lands during military dictatorship. Many left their lands to survive, and it should not invalidate the fact that they have occupied these territories for centuries and thus have constitutional rights to their ancestral lands.
The military dictatorship left behind a legacy of exploitation, domination, and an emphasis on high productivity at any cost. These issues persist today, as landowners continue to feel entitled to invade Indigenous lands, and to kill and persecute Indigenous people, while destroying the environment to establish monoculture plantations and cattle ranches for profit. The impact of the dictatorship on Cerrado and the Guarani have been devastating, and their effects still echo, even more strongly. The military dictatorship played a significant role in the devastation of the Cerrado biome and the violence against those who have long protected their lands—the Indigenous communities who have resisted for centuries. It shows the urgent need to revisit and understand this history to raise awareness, and hopefully, to prevent further harm to these lands and peoples.
[1] Sandro Dutra e Silva, “Challenging the Environmental History of the Cerrado: Science, Biodiversity and Politics on the Brazilian Agricultural Frontier,” Historia Ambiental Latinoamericana y Caribeña (HALAC) Revista de La Solcha 10, no. 1 (5 May 2020): 82–116, 82-116.
[2] Vanessa Pereira Da Silva E Mello and Dominichi Miranda De Sá, “Science and the Green Revolution in the Brazilian Amazon: The Establishment of Embrapa during of the Civilian-Military Dictatorship and the Emergence of Environmental Movements (1972-1991),” Historia Ambiental Latinoamericana y Caribeña (HALAC) Revista de La Solcha 12, no. 2 (16 August 2022): 170–216.
[3] Mello and Miranda De Sá.
[4] Silva E Mello and Sá, “Science and the Green Revolution in the Brazilian Amazon.”
Cover Image by Victor Bravo, used with permission.
[*Cover Image description: Guarani Kaiowá people protesting, singing and holding their maracá (indigenous musical instrument). All of them are wearing traditional accessories on their heads and necks.]
Edited by Katie Kung; reviewed by Lívia Regina Batista.