Farmers attack Indigenous people reclaiming land in Brazil

BRASILIA (Reuters) -Armed men backed by farmers in trucks and tractors attacked Indigenous people reclaiming land in Brazil's farming state of Mato Grosso do Sul at the weekend, injuring 11 of them, government officials and a rights group said on Monday.

The Ministry of Indigenous Affairs said five of the 10 people injured on Saturday were taken to hospital to be treated for wounds from gunshots and rubber bullets in the first attack in the Douradina district.

"The Guarani-Kaiowa people are retaking land in the Panambi-Lagoa Rica territory," the ministry said in a statement, blaming the violence on the uncertain legal situation surrounding Indigenous land claims.

On Sunday night, the farmers broke through a rope put up by the Indigenous group to mark the land they claim and set fire to their tents, police said.

At least one person was injured by a rubber bullet in Sunday's incident, said the Indigenous Missionary Council, a rights group linked to the Catholic Church. It said police had failed to stop the farmers.

The latest violence erupted two days before Supreme Court justices and lawmakers met to reconcile differences on a controversial law limiting Indigenous land claims.

As Brazil's farm frontier has advanced toward the Amazon, mainly to plant soy for export or raise cattle to produce beef, disputes over land claimed by Indigenous people have multiplied.

Violent land disputes have become more frequent with the ongoing debate over the movement to limit Indigenous claims to ancestral lands in a Conservative Congress backed by Brazil's powerful farm lobby. Less than half of Brazil's 1.6 million Indigenous people live on about 13% of the country's land mass.

Lawmakers have proposed an amendment to Brazil's constitution to introduce a limit for claims to lands Indigenous communities lived on no later than 1988, even though the Supreme Court has ruled that setting such a time framework was unconstitutional.

The ministry said in its statement that "the instability generated for land claims not only causes legal uncertainty for Indigenous peoples, but also opens the door for acts of violence in which they are the main victims."

On Monday, justices and lawmakers began discussing how to bridge their disagreement over the constitutionality of limiting Indigenous land claims.

The main Indigenous organization APIB said the commission, which includes members of the Congressional farm caucus, was weighted against Indigenous interests and Brazil should stick to the Constitution that upholds the right to land claims.

(Reporting by Anthony Boadle;Editing by Helen Popper and Richard Chang)