Legislative protection of treatises on indigenous lands has emerged in Brazil

According to the official vote, there were 321 votes in the House of Representatives against the measure taken by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and 137 votes in favor, while the record in the Senate was 53 votes to 19.

The controversial legal thesis, championed by the powerful rural sector, claims that jurisdiction over Aboriginal land can only occur if it is proven that Aboriginal people were in the required space on October 5, 1988, the date of the publication of the Federal Constitution.

On September 21, the Federal Supreme Court ruled that this temporary event was unconstitutional. Eight days later, the House and Senate approved a bill incorporating the temporary framework thesis into federal law.

In October, Lula partially vetoed the project approved by the legislature, arguing that the thesis was already considered unconstitutional.

For Senator Luis Carlos Heinz, the veto harms the economic exploitation of Brazilian territory.

“No country in the world has as much territorial scope for indigenous people as Brazil. 114 million hectares of land allocated to indigenous reserves is too high, and they want to reach 120 and 130 million hectares. “Brazil is already full of indigenous reserves, national parks and protected areas,” he claimed.

The National Institute of Indigenous Peoples determined that the 736 registered indigenous lands represented only 13 percent of the national territory, with a total area of ​​about 117 million hectares.

According to the latest census conducted by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, the number of indigenous people in Brazil is about 900 thousand people, distributed among 305 ethnic groups.

In favor of preserving the veto, federal MP Tarcisio Mota said that the federal constitution did not establish the logic of the framework within which the occupation of indigenous lands becomes legitimate.

“This is a battle between agribusiness sectors interested in continuing progress on indigenous lands, and indigenous peoples and populations and social movements, which are fighting for their survival, for the right to exist,” he denounced.

Given the collapse of the presidential veto, the Labor Party announced that it would file an unconstitutional lawsuit against this dismissal in the Supreme Court.

Likewise, Indigenous Expression in Brazil confirmed that it will file an appeal with the highest court against the temporary framework that deprives traditional peoples of their indigenous right to land.

note/ocs