Danke: The Chocolate Empire and the Blood on Bahia’s Soil

On the southern coast of Bahia, where the Atlantic rainforest once brushed against cacao plantations and surf towns, paradise is fenced off by barbed wire. This is Pataxó territory — land that carries both the scent of chocolate and the smoke of eviction. Last week, around forty armed militiamen stormed the Indigenous Land of Comexatibá, in the municipality of Prado, a lush coastal region once romanticized as the cradle of Brazil’s cacao renaissance. The attack, carried out at dawn, shattered that image. It exposed the darker truth behind the country’s “bean-to-bar” dream: when land is worth more than life, violence becomes the price of luxury.

The attack left communities terrified and renewed old scars: land conflicts dressed up as agribusiness disputes, private militias acting as “security forces,” and a political system that continues to trade Indigenous rights for real-estate profit.

At the center of this storm is a familiar name on Brazilian supermarket shelves — Danke Chocolates — celebrated for its “bean-to-bar” ethics and European-style refinement. According to Brazil’s Indigenous Peoples Articulation (APIB), the company’s owner, Ernesto Ary Neugebauer, and his family are linked to properties accused of invading Pataxó territory. These lands include the Fazendas Imbassuaba and Portal da Magia, where access to the beach was reportedly blocked for months, prompting Indigenous residents to reclaim the area themselves.

What followed was not negotiation but escalation. Witnesses described the attackers as hired by the Association of Agribusiness of Southern Bahia (Agronex), each allegedly paid 500 reais. APIB denounced the assault as part of a wider campaign of intimidation and “fascist organization” targeting Indigenous communities fighting for land demarcation.

Chocolate, Real Estate, and the Mirage of Sustainability

Neugebauer’s portfolio extends beyond cacao. His company Calambrião Participações Ltda, founded in 2017 with his daughter, lists among its activities lot division and real-estate development. Documents cited by Indigenous advocates suggest overlapping land claims and property registrations that fuel speculation in one of Bahia’s most coveted coastal regions.

A 2005 report by FUNAI, Brazil’s Indigenous affairs agency, identified the area as traditional Pataxó territory — but two decades of bureaucratic delay turned legal limbo into a land grab. Wealthy landowners consolidated claims, fenced off beaches, and marketed the land as luxury eco-retreats. Paradise became property.

The irony cuts deep: brands like Danke have built their image on notions of fair trade and ethical sourcing. Their packaging speaks of rainforest protection and local empowerment. Yet, as APIB points out, the cacao supply chain remains intertwined with violence, exclusion, and dispossession — a colonial logic remixed for the gourmet aisle.

The Facade of “Ethical Indulgence”

In the marketing world, “bean-to-bar” has become shorthand for authenticity. But in southern Bahia, every bean carries a history of conquest. The Pataxó, one of Brazil’s oldest Indigenous peoples, have lived through centuries of dislocation — from the Jesuit missions of the 17th century to the tourism boom of the 21st.

When multinational demand for “single-origin cacao” meets weak land regulation, it doesn’t empower Indigenous communities; it pushes them further to the edge. “They steal our land, our beach, and then sell chocolate saying it’s sustainable,” one Pataxó elder told APIB reporters in the aftermath of the attack.

Meanwhile, the Brazilian state remains lethargic in enforcing constitutional rights to Indigenous land. The vacuum leaves space for militias — sometimes farmers, sometimes ex-policemen — who operate with impunity. It’s a model of violence that hides behind the soothing language of “development.”

A Colonial Recipe That Never Changed

The Neugebauer name carries historical weight in Brazil’s confectionery industry — a dynasty that helped shape the national sweet tooth. But the current scandal exposes a darker heritage: the plantation mentality repackaged for modern capitalism.

As environmental NGOs call for investigations and retailers face mounting pressure to suspend Danke’s products, the case reveals a global hypocrisy. Western consumers post climate-conscious hashtags while consuming goods tied to land conflicts and Indigenous blood.

If chocolate is the taste of pleasure, in Bahia it has also become the taste of betrayal — sugarcoating the violence that sustains “ethical luxury.”

For the Pataxó of Comexatibá, the demand is simple: demarcation now.
Without it, every bite of “sustainable” chocolate remains stained by the bitter truth — that the sweetest stories of capitalism are still written on stolen land.

In German, “Danke” means “thank you.” But after the smoke cleared over Comexatibá, the word lands differently. It tastes hollow — like the corporate gratitude printed on glossy wrappers while the soil bleeds beneath. For the Pataxó, who’ve buried too many sons defending what was always theirs, the message reads less like appreciation and more like mockery. Danke? Thanks for nothing