Support The Struggle For Life Of The Indigenous Peoples Of Brazil! No To The Anti-Indigenous Rights Bill!

Indigenous Peoples (IP) from all over Brazil mount historic protests against anti-Indigenous rights bill. Thousands of Indigenous men and women mobilised and participated to unite and confront the genocidal policies and anti-Indigenous agenda forwarded by the Bolsonaro administration.

On August 22, in front of the buildings of the President, Congress and Supreme Court, the Articulation of the Indigenous Peoples in Brazil (APIB) began the protest camp “Struggle for Life.” The protest camp is marked as the biggest Indigenous protest in the history of Brazil against Bolsonaro’s grave human rights violations, systematic extermination of IP and massive land and environmental destruction.

The anti-Indigenous agenda, promoted by the Bolsonaro administration, puts forth a series of contentious policies which directly violates the rights of the IP to their ancestral lands, territories and resources. The highly controversial Bill 490/2007 or PL 490 will demarcate Indigenous lands and prevent IP from obtaining legal recognition over their traditional lands if they were not physically present there before October 5, 1988 — the day in which Brazil’s Constitution was enacted.

Indigenous men and women have protested against this unjust criterion, referred to as Marco Temporal. It legally removes the rights of Indigenous Peoples to their land by using an arbitrary cut-off date as a temporal precondition in land ownership. This temporal precondition violates the right of Indigenous Peoples, as the original occupants and caretakers of their lands. The Indigenous Peoples along with their history, culture, traditions, and values, precedes the creation and promulgation of the 1988 Constitution.

APIB in its urgent appeal to the United Nations and Special Rapporteurs last July 6 outlines eight major risks in the adoption of PL 490 . They cited the violation of the rights of IP to free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) in the creation of the PL 490. It highlighted specific articles in the drafted bill which allows large-scale development of energy projects, mining, roads and agricultural enterprises without consulting affected Indigenous communities.

PL 490 also alters the “no contact” policy for Indigenous Peoples living in voluntary isolation into an “avoided contact” policy that allows forced contact with uncontacted tribes. Uncontacted tribes, mostly living in the rainforests of the Amazon, are at risk for contracting contagious diseases, such as influenza, measles and tuberculosis. Forced contact could potentially wipe them out with these introduced diseases because they have not yet built immunological resistance.

We at the Indigenous Peoples Movement for Self-Determination and Liberation (IPMSDL) stand in solidarity with the Indigenous Peoples of Brazil. We salute your brave resistance against the violent and greedy Bolsonaro administration backed by power-hungry corporations. These corporations are not above employing dirty tactics, such as hiring armed goons which have forcibly displaced Indigenous communities, with the aim of making a fortune over rampant environmental destruction and at the expense of the lives of Indigenous Peoples.

The “Struggle for Life” protest camp resonates deeply with the collective aspirations of Indigenous Peoples, across the world, struggling to live their lives with their rights protected and intact, to determine their development and future free from oppression and corporate plunder, and to be part of a just and peaceful society.

Reference:
Beverly Longid, Global Coordinator

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