Who here had to pay an indigenous toll to continue their journey?
Anyone traveling through the interior of Mato Grosso, for sure, has seen this approach in the form of a threat.
In my case, it was around 10 pm, on the road that crosses the Pareci Indigenous Reserve, in southwest Mato Grosso. MT-235 connects the municipalities of Campo Novo do Parecis and Sapezal.
There is a guardhouse with security at the collection entrance and only those who pay will pass.
After paying an expensive and abusive fee, the indigenous people hand over a receipt. The document has the address, name and details of the village.
The indigenous people still communicate by radio and have motorcycles to accompany their cars, inspect the stretch and ensure that drivers pay for the passage from one point to another.
The stretch, in fact, is an alternative to the BR-364 highway, on which drivers would have to make a detour of almost 250 kilometers to reach Sapezal.
In that case, there is a guardhouse. In many cases, the indigenous people simply block other sections of the federal highways, charging, armed, toll per pass, as a form of protest by the tribes.
I consider this practice an extortion and must be increasingly combated.