For years, Indigenous families have faced pressure from real estate developers seeking to evict them in order to develop the area on lands known as Santuário dos Pajés, a sacred place for Indigenous spirituality

~ Aldo Santiago, Avispa Midia ~

On Tuesday morning, 15 April, members of the Military Police of the Federal District (PMDF), Brasilia, carried out a violent raid in the Teko-Haw village where 40 families of the Guajajara people live. Using violence, tear gas, tractors and drones, the PMDF members advanced to allow the entry of machinery that deforested an area of ​​Cerrado vegetation – the savannah with the greatest biodiversity in the world – and also destroyed the Rezo Kwarahy Guajajara hunting lodge built by Guajajara families, who migrated from the state of Maranhão, in northern Brazil, in 2009.

Located northwest of Brasília, these lands have been inhabited by Indigenous peoples such as the Fulni-ô Tapuya, Tuxá, Kariri-Xocó, Wapichana, and Guajajara. Their ancestral territory lies within the urban expansion zone where the Federal District Government (GDF) is interested in building the most expensive neighbourhood in the capital city—and one of the most expensive in all of Brazil—while promoting it as an “ecological green neighbourhood.”

For years, Indigenous families have faced pressure from real estate developers seeking to evict them in order to develop the area on lands known as Santuário dos Pajés, a sacred place for Indigenous spirituality.

According to the Map of Conflicts over Environmental Injustice and Health in Brazil, since the 1990s, the Santuário dos Pajés territory has been disputed by the construction companies Emplavi and Brasal, which seek to benefit from the expansion plan for the Northwest Sector of Brasília. According to the mapping, both construction companies have the support of Terracap, a public company with district and federal jurisdiction, responsible for land registration in the capital and which has made agreements with other Indigenous communities to vacate areas designated for urban development projects.

To date, only 32.4 hectares have been officially recognized as Indigenous Territory within the Santuário dos Pajés (the only ones demarcated in Brazil’s capital), which covers a larger area of ​​50 hectares. This recognition was the result of a decade-long legal dispute, resolved through a 2018 agreement between the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPF), the National Indian Foundation (Funai), the Brasília Environmental Institute (Ibram), and the Federal District Development Agency (Terracap).

However, the 32.4 hectares are designated for the exclusive use of the Fulni-ô Tapuya community, but other communities such as the Guajajara, Tuxá, Kariri-Xocó, and Wapichana also inhabit the area. They maintain the demand for the expansion and recognition of the entire ancestral territory historically occupied by Indigenous peoples.

Brasília has Indigenous villages

The Teko-Haw village was established in the indigenous territories of Brasilia, just 20 minutes from the centre of Brazilian political power, as a form of political protest in 2009, when a presidential decree—issued by Lula da Silva during his second term—ordered the restructuring of Funai without the participation of Brazil’s indigenous communities.

Since then, the village, made up of Guajajara Indigenous people from Maranhão, has remained on their ancestral lands northwest of Brasília, where they practice traditional corn and cassava farming among native Cerrado trees such as the pequi and araticum.

Despite submitting multiple formal requests to various government agencies, for more than a decade they have been denied official recognition of their territory, as well as access to basic rights such as sanitation, electricity, drinking water, education, and healthcare. In this context, the families of the Teko-Haw village—especially the children—face severe food vulnerability.

Just days before the conclusion of ATL 2025—where thousands of Indigenous people from across Brazil mobilized—GDF security forces launched a police operation against the village. This, despite the fact that during the encampment, community members held meetings with federal officials, demanding commitments to respect the Guajajara families resisting in the Teko-Haw village.

During ATL 2025, Chief Francisco Guajajara and other members of the Teko-Haw village joined the mobilizations to request support from the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (Apib) and other Indigenous peoples who participated in the protests. In an interview with Avispa Mídia, Chief Francisco maintained that his community is responsible for caring for and defending the environment in a context of urban expansion that causes deforestation and threatens the region’s water sources.

“We are here to demand the demarcation of our territory, our health, and the preservation of the environment, because we, the indigenous peoples of Brazil, are the ones fighting for climate justice,” shared Chief Francisco, while protesting the attempts to destroy the prayer hut, a structure that, despite the community’s efforts, was dismantled during the operation this Tuesday, 15th April.

“We are fighting with Terracap so that we can regularize our territory. That is what we need, because we need our living territory. That is what we demand,” said Chief Guajajara.

Another Attempt

This Tuesday’s police operation is just the latest in Terracap’s efforts to displace the Teko-Haw village. Recently, at the end of March, the Federal Court ordered a temporary suspension of the community’s eviction after receiving a request from the Federal Public Defender’s Office (DPU), which reported the violation of Indigenous rights during a police action that occurred in February of this year.

However, this Tuesday’s eviction attempt was ordered by Judge Kátia Balbino, who authorized the GDF and Terracap to take joint measures to, “stop further illegal occupations in the region and continue infrastructure projects in the area.”

According to a GDF bulletin, based on a March 2025 inspection, the property, “located in Block 707 of the Northwest, is unoccupied, with no residents or Indigenous communities present. The court decision was based on aerial images that confirmed the absence of residential occupations at the site.”

Despite the violent incursion and the destruction of the prayer house, at press time, no injuries were reported in the Teko-haw village, while Guajajara families remain on alert in their homes for any further incursion by security forces.