Hundreds of indigenous people from across Brazil marched April 25 in Brasilia, the country’s capital, to demand government protection of their land and rights against invaders. The march was part of the 19th Free Land Camp, an annual national mobilization by indigenous peoples. “The demarcation of Indigenous Lands is an ancestral right provided for in the Federal Constitution,” Dinamam Tuxá, executive coordinator of the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB), said in a statement. “Those who invade an Indigenous Land destroy forests and attack indigenous people, who have been fighting for the protection of their families, cultures and lands for over 500 years.”
From Jurist, April 25. Used with permission.
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Brazil: Lula decrees six new indigenous reserves
Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on April 28 decreed six new indigenous reserves, the first after a dearth of such expansion under his far-right predecessor Jair Bolsonaro. Two of the six new reserves are in the Amazon. The largest, named Unieuxi, was allocated to 249 members of the Maku and Tukano peoples on more than 550,000 hectares in the northern state of Amazonas. Two others are in the country’s northeast, one in the south, and one in central Brazil.
The announcement was made at a closing ceremony for the 19th “Terra Livre” (Free Land) gathering of thousands of indigenous peoples from across the country. (RFI)