Hundreds of Indigenous people have been protesting in northern Brazil for two weeks outside the port terminal of US agribusiness giant Cargill, angered over the dredging and development of Amazonian rivers for grain exports.
Brazil’s Indigenous communities have raised the alarm for months about port expansion on rivers they see as vital to their way of life, a grievance they protested at COP30 climate talks last November.
“The government is opening up our territories to many projects … to boost agribusiness,” Indigenous leader Auricelia Arapiuns told AFP in a video message from the Amazon port city of Santarem, in the same state that hosted COP30 in Belem.
“We have been here for 14 days, but this struggle didn’t start now. We occupied Cargill to draw attention so that the government would come up with a proposal.”
By Wednesday, some 700 Indigenous people from 14 communities were taking part in the demonstration, according to the Amazon Watch advocacy group.
The protesters have blocked trucks from “entering and leaving the terminal,” Cargill said in a statement sent to AFP, adding it has “no authority or control” over their complaints.
The Minnesota-based multinational has agricultural logistics operations across Brazil, where it employs 11,000 people.
Protesters on Wednesday demanded the cancellation of a decree signed by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in August which designates major Amazonian rivers as priorities for cargo navigation and private port expansion.
They also want the cancellation of a federal tender issued in December worth 74.8 million reais ($14.2 million) to manage and dredge the Tapajos River – a major Amazon tributary.
“This infrastructure that is coming is not a space for us, and it never will be. It is a project of death to kill our river and our sacred places,” Indigenous leader Alessandra Korap of the Munduruku people said in a statement.
The ports ministry said earlier in January that the contract of a company for maintenance dredging was necessary to “increase navigation safety… and ensure greater predictability for cargo and passenger transport operations.”
