By Socialist Opinion, PSTU Brazil
After 335 years, the Tupinambá mantle, a sacred object of Brazilian indigenous culture, taken from here by the French colonizers and preserved in Europe for centuries, was officially returned to Brazil.
But at the celebration, attended by Indigenous Peoples Minister Sonia Guajajara and President Lula, Yakuy Tupinambá, an elder and indigenous leader from Olivença, Bahia, gave a harsh speech criticizing the actions of Congress, the judiciary, and the federal government itself regarding indigenous demands.
“We have been violated for a long time, but recently the state and the patrimonialist institutions have unleashed a deprivation of rights, with attacks on dignity and the preservation of life. Today we have the worst Congress in history, a self-centered and biased judiciary, and a weakened government, chained to alliances and shenanigans to stay in power. They do not respect the laws or international treaties and conventions. We live in a distorted democracy,” Yakuy added in his speech.
Lula responded to the speech by denying that the government is engaging in any sort of servility to stay in power, reiterating that the PT does not have a majority in Congress and justifying that “to approve things, I am forced to talk to those who do not like me”. Does this include the more than 400 billion reais granted to agribusiness to finance the expansion of the sector, including in indigenous territories?
Lula continues to neglect the indigenous peoples
In fact, this was not the first manifestation of indigenous leaders’ dissatisfaction with Lula’s government. Last year, Cacique Raoni criticized the president’s partial veto of temporary projects approved by ruralists (landowners) in the National Congress and the lack of health care for indigenous peoples, claiming that the withdrawal of invaders was less than expected. “He is slow. He has not fulfilled the promises he made on the day of his inauguration, and that is why I am going to Brasilia to knock on his door,” he said.
Raoni tried twice to speak with Lula, but was not received. At the presidential inauguration, the cacique walked up the ramp with Lula, who promised to meet the demands of the indigenous movements. But little has changed since then.
“Yakuy represented the indigenous peoples of Brazil very well in his speech, because he had the opportunity to directly address their criticisms and discontent with the government. It is absurd how Lula continues to neglect indigenous peoples, despite his lying inauguration speech. The suspension of the demarcation of TIs [indigenous lands] is one of them. The government masks the problem with countless promises to guarantee the profits of the oppressors in power,” explains Raquel Künã Yporã Tremembé, who fights for the demarcation of her people’s lands in Maranhão.
Burnings and invasions of indigenous lands
The wave of fires that is ravaging Brazil is the announcement of the expansion of the new agricultural frontiers of capitalist agriculture, the so-called agribusiness, punishing mainly the Amazon and the Cerrado.
Indigenous lands (TIs) are also the target of fires set by land grabbers and ranchers. In August, three of the TIs most invaded by land grabbers in the Amazon suffered an explosion of fires.
The Kayapó indigenous territory in the south of Pará, where 4,500 Kayapó Mebengôkres live, registered the highest number of fires. Satellite images show the TI completely covered in fire and smoke. In second place is the Munduruku TI, in the southwest of Pará. In 28 days, 217 hotspots were recorded in the territory, which is home to 9,257 Mundurukus and Apiakás.
The third is the land of Sararé, in the southwest of Mato Grosso, where the Nambikwaras live, a people with an extraordinary history and who have faced the invasion of the “garimpeiros” (gold prospectors) since the Bolsonaro government. In all these territories, there is still a strong presence of these gold miners and only sporadic actions are carried out to control and fight the “garimpo” structure.
Violence and murders continue
As of September 5, the government and the Ministry of Justice had only signed the Decree of Declaration (the final document that authorizes their demarcation) of three indigenous territories. None of them is involved in the discussion of the Temporary Framework, an absurd and unconstitutional measure approved by Congress that only recognizes Indigenous lands occupied before the establishment of the Constituent Assembly in 1988.
Meanwhile, the ranchers’ fires, deforestation, and the invasion of mining exploitation [“garimpagem”] prevail. But violence also erupts.
In 2023, 411 cases of violence against indigenous people were recorded, including 208 murders, an increase of 15.5% over 2022.
The most recent cases concerned two Guaraní-Kaiowá in Mato Grosso do Sul. Kaiowá Neri Ramos da Silva was killed on the September 18, shot during an illegal operation by the Military Police (PM) in collaboration with ranchers’ militias. All indications are that Neri was shot by a police sniper. On September 23, Fred Souza Garcete, Guarani Kaiowá, 15 years old, from the indigenous land of Nhanderu Marangatu, was found dead on the MS-384 highway, in the municipality of Antônio João (MS).
Fight! Defeat agribusiness before it turns everything into blood and ashes
The delay in land demarcation and impunity fuel the violence. This is also the case of the Tupinambá Indians of southern Bahia, who have been anxiously awaiting the signing of the decree demarcating their territory for 15 years.
Many of their leaders have already been murdered, and they are constantly threatened by the onslaught of agribusiness in the region. So much for the Manto Tupinambá, which has been in Denmark since 1689. This extraordinary piece, 1.80 m long and made of thousands of guará feathers, is not only a link between the indigenous people and their ancestors, but also the best proof of the need to return these territories to their true guardians.
It is necessary to demarcate all indigenous lands immediately, before agribusiness turns all the forests into ashes, destroys the indigenous peoples and leaves us without even the sacred mantle of the Tupinambás.
Article published in www.opiniãosocialista.com.br, 9/26/2024.
