Brazil’s indigenous peoples face a relentless political siege, an orchestrated offensive that puts our existence in danger. The elections are approaching and the main electoral campaign of the right is the attack on our rights.
Tuesday (9), while the Legislative Police of the Chamber expelled the deputy Glauber Braga (PSOL-RJ) from the plenary and attacked the deputy Célia The proposal aims to constitutionalize the calendar thesis, which limits the demarcation of land to communities who prove that they were in possession on October 5, 1988.
It is a maneuver tailor-made for agro-industry to rewrite the Constitution, ignoring centuries of expulsions, genocides and violence, which have prevented our permanence in the territories. It is a declaration of war against indigenous peoples.
This attack comes in the middle of a serious institutional crisis. In 2023, the STF had already declared this deadline unconstitutional and President Lula had vetoed the law establishing it. Congress, however, overturned the veto and is now openly defying the Supreme Court, with PEC 48. The approval of the PEC in the Senate, while the STF was preparing to judge Law 14.701/2023, was a clear attempt to pressure the judgment. The tension between the powers has never been so explicit.
The effects of PEC are devastating. Not only does this consolidate invasions, but it also makes future demarcations impossible by providing multi-billion dollar compensation, turning our original right into a prohibitive cost to the state.
At the same time, PEC 10/2024, which aims to release the rental of indigenous lands to third parties, is also advancing in the Senate, despite the rejection of many leaders, who see in practice a form of “welfare” and a threat to territorial integrity.
This is not an abstract dispute. The validity of the framework law has already intensified violence in the territories, legitimizing invasions, land grabs, attacks and murders. Our lands, which are the areas that best protect forests and biodiversity, are directly attacked. The Congress, dominated by the ruralist group and the far right, acts against life, democracy and a possible climate future.
All eyes now turn to the STF which, after hearing the pleadings, postponed the final vote until 2026. It is towards the Supreme Court, guardian of the Constitution, that we direct our confidence, demanding that it reaffirm the unconstitutionality of the calendar and that it completely annul this genocidal law.
We reiterate that our rights are original and immutable clauses, non-negotiable and prior to the State itself, as Apib wrote in its repudiation note.
But we will not forget the “members of the Congress of Death” who, in the dead of night, attempt to dismantle the Constitution. Election year is coming and we will not let the country forget this vote. The Senate has indigenous blood on its hands, but our resistance is stronger.
We call on everyone, from cities to territories, to resist. For our territories, our lives and our future. Demarcation now!
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