Santarém, Pará, Brazil – Today the Indigenous occupation at Cargill’s grain terminal in Santarém entered its 20th day, deepening the movement’s standoff with the Lula administration over plans to dredge the Tapajós and privatize Amazonian rivers. While the federal government announced on Friday that it would suspend Tapajós dredging plans, leaders from the Lower and Middle Tapajós say the protest will continue indefinitely, because the concession provides no concrete guarantee of its definitive cancelation, nor does it address the movement’s core demand: the repeal of Decree 12,600/2025.
Since January 22, the Indigenous mobilization has denounced that the decree was issued without free, prior, and informed consultation, as required by International Labor Organization Convention 169, to which Brazil is a signatory. The decree places stretches of the Tapajós, Madeira, and Tocantins rivers under Brazil’s National Privatization Program (PND), paving the way for the privatization of so-called “navigation maintenance” services, including destructive dredging operations. The communities blockading Cargill’s terminal highlight how the expansion of export infrastructure is imposed on living territories and upon collective rights in the Amazon.
The weeks-long protest was triggered by government plans to contract dredging services along the Santarém-Itaituba stretch of the Tapajós River adjacent to archaeological sites and sacred places for the Munduruku people. For Indigenous leaders, the government’s proposed “suspension” only provides a temporary reprieve: it slows the process in the short term, but leaves the door open for the bidding to restart at any moment, even if documented legal violations are never addressed.
“In practice, it’s a response that tries to send us back home without delivering what the movement considers the minimum: annulment of the dredging process, repeal of Decree 12,600/2025, and a good-faith consultation guarantee before any measure moves forward,” said Alessandra Korap, a Munduruku leader and 2023 Goldman Environmental Prize recipient.
Federal lawmaker Célia Xakriabá, who visited the occupation over the weekend, said the Tapajós case is tied to a broader debate about the future of Amazon rivers and the social cost of export-oriented infrastructure. “This struggle isn’t only for Indigenous peoples – it’s to ensure your child has the right to bathe in the river and eat from the river. Have you ever had to pay to swim in the Tapajós? To bathe in the Arapiuns? Money can buy many things, but it cannot buy the river back,” Xakriabá said.
“What is happening in the Tapajós gives Brazil the chance to choose a path different from the destruction led by soy monoculture and commodities exports. The ongoing resistance of Indigenous peoples shows that there is still time for the Brazilian government to prioritize sociobiodiversity and food sovereignty over more profits for big corporations and billionaires,” said Pedro Charbel, Amazon Watch Brazil Campaigner.
Background
Decree No. 12,600/2025 included Amazon waterways in Brazil’s National Privatization Program (PND), a step linked to concession processes to the private sector. For the Indigenous peoples of the Tapajós River, consultation cannot be treated as a procedural box-checking exercise to legitimize decisions already made, and any attempt to turn the river into a permanent export corridor would intensify pressure on traditional territories and on the river’s own ecological balance.
