Indigenous Protestors Return to the Streets of Brasilia | Amazon Watch
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Indigenous Protestors Return to the Streets of Brasilia

December 6, 2013 | Christian Poirier | Eye on the Amazon

Indigenous Protestors Return to the Streets of Brasilia

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This week members of Brazil’s indigenous peoples renewed their unwavering objection to a series of proposed laws and constitutional amendments that aim to erode their land rights. After their historic mobilization in October, indigenous leadership learned of new and high-level attempts to undermine land demarcation norms, prompting hundreds of indigenous representatives from across Brazil to march on the presidential palace this Wednesday. In a protest marked by anger and indignation, indigenous marchers stood resolutely against the actions of an increasingly unsympathetic Dilma Rousseff government, affirming that they will not allow their rights to be legislated away.

Protests were sparked after an assembly in Brasilia for a conference on indigenous health gained access to a resolution drafted by the Minister of Justice, Jose Eduardo Cardozo, last weekend. The ordinance “establishes instructions” on the procedure for the demarcation of the country’s indigenous land, according to Decree 1775/96.

“Contrary to government claims, this document will not demarcate indigenous territories, it will undermine FUNAI, and it will create more conflict”, states a note written by the Association of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB).

According to indigenous leaders, if this official document is published, it will not be a constitutional right to protect the traditional land. “The resolution draft states that boundary delimitations will minimize impacts, that is to say, if farmland is established in the indigenous land, the demarcation will not occur,” says Sonia Bone Guajajara of APIB, the organization that organized the protest.

The indigenous Chief Marcos Xukuru said that the resolution draft was not shown to the indigenous leaders that are part of the National Commission of Indigenist Politics (NCPI). Dilma’s government is characterized by the lack of transparency and communication with the indigenous people in that country. Marcos said that the protest on Wednesday demanded the suppression of Ordinance 303 from the office of the Attorney General (AGU), as well as PEC 215 and PLP 227, both fiercely anti-indigenous laws under consideration in Brazil’s National Congress.

“What we can see is a set of measures implemented by the executive and the legislative power that represent some of the greatest threats against indigenous rights since the military dictatorship,” asserted Chief Marcos Xukuru. “We regret that the government is responsible for this, but we reaffirm our ideas and we say: we will fight until the end, emphatically, for our rights and lives.”

This article contains portions of a story written by Brazil’s Indigenist Missionary Council (CIMI), translated by Henrique Gobbi.

NOTE: About 1,700 indigenous people from different parts of the country are participating in the National Indigenous Health Conference, or Conferência Nacional de Saúde Indígena, in Brasilia. The conference will come to an end this weekend. They also participated in a public demonstration on December 4 in the Centro Internacional de Convenções do Brasil (CIBD).

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