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Brazilian tribe tells Coca-Cola: Buy supplies away from our ancestral land
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/12/16/brazilian-tribe-tells-coca-cola-buy-supplies-away-from-our-ancestral-land/
Brazilian tribe tells Coca-Cola: Buy supplies away from our ancestral land
By Agence France-Presse
Monday, December 16, 2013 18:35 EST
Brazil’s Guarani Indians accused Coca-Cola of buying sugar from a Bermudan company that sourced it from their ancestral lands, urging the US soft drink giant to find a new supplier, a tribal rights group said Monday.
The Guarani community, with a total population in Brazil estimated at 46,000, has been trying to recover a small portion of its original territories, but faces violent resistance from wealthy ranchers as well as soy and sugar-cane plantation owners.
“While these companies profit, we are forced to endure hunger, misery, and killings,” said a Guarani spokesman in a statement by London-based Survival International, which champions the rights of indigenous people worldwide.
Coca-Cola buys sugar from Bermudan agribusiness giant Bunge, “which in turn buys sugar cane from land stolen from the Guarani, to produce biofuels ‘tainted with Indian blood,’” the group said, citing a recent report by aid agency Oxfam.