Message marks the last day of the event that brought together around 9,000 people from more than 200 nations in Brasília.
The last day of activities at the Free Land Camp (ATL) 2024 in Brasilia was marked by the release of a joint declaration signed by the organizations behind the event, which marked its 20th edition this year.
Entitled Land, Time and Struggle, the document identified as the “Urgent Declaration of the Indigenous Peoples of Brazil”, published on April 26, reaffirms the struggle of the Indigenous peoples: “OUR MARK IS ANCESTRAL! WE’VE ALWAYS BEEN HERE!”
“The deliberate decision by the powers of the state to suspend the demarcation of Indigenous lands and to apply Law 14.701 (the Indigenous Genocide Law) amounts to a DECLARATION OF WAR against our peoples and territories. This represents a breach in the pact established between the Brazilian state and our peoples since the promulgation of the 1988 Constitution, which exclusively recognized our original rights, which predate the very formation of the Brazilian state,” highlights an excerpt from the text.
The Declaration highlights the presence of around 9,000 people, representing more than 200 peoples, who traveled from all regions of Brazil to the federal capital for a week of intense activities. The volume of participants shows the growth and increasing importance of the ATL, which in its initial edition in 2004 had 240 indigenous people.
“We will never accept the legalization of the ongoing genocide of our peoples. Likewise, we vehemently repudiate the opening up of our territories to developments that run counter to the urgency of the climate crisis and global warming. Such developments represent a direct threat to Mother Nature, the forests, our rivers, biodiversity, fauna and flora, as well as all the riches and forms of life that we have preserved over millennia,” the statement highlights.
Read the full document below:
Land, Time and Struggle
Urgent Declaration of the Indigenous Peoples of Brazil
We Indigenous peoples are time itself. We are enchanters of this time that is like a snake, with many curves, a history that cannot be simplified as a straight line. Who would have thought that, after more than five centuries of colonization and extermination, we would still be here, standing firm like our forests, chanting our songs and playing our maracas, in resistance for life and for the good living of society as a whole. 20 years of Camp Terra Livre! The first one, held in 2004, brought together 240 Indigenous people. Today, in Brasilia, we are here with around 9,000 people, representing more than 200 peoples, who have come from all regions and biomes of this Brazilian territory to say: “OUR MARK IS ANCESTRAL! WE’VE ALWAYS BEEN HERE!”
Between April 22 and 26, we were in the federal capital mobilizing to demand our rights! We from the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB), together with all our regional grassroots organizations, Apoinme, Arpinsul, Arpinsudeste, Aty Guasu, the Guarani Yvyrupa Commission, Coiab and the Terena People’s Council, are seeking effective measures to ensure the protection and strengthening of Indigenous rights, in line with the dignity and justice demanded by our peoples.
We began our historic mobilization by demanding 25 points, which are included in the ‘Letter from the Indigenous Peoples of Brazil to the Three Powers of the State,’ with demands for urgent measures. And we end our mobilization by reaffirming these urgent demands! OUR TIME IS NOW! We can’t wait any longer and we need concrete answers!
The deliberate decision by the powers of the state to suspend the demarcation of Indigenous lands and to apply Law 14.701 (the Indigenous Genocide Law) amounts to a DECLARATION OF WAR against our peoples and territories. This represents a break in the pact established between the Brazilian state and our peoples since the promulgation of the 1988 Constitution, which exclusively recognized our original rights, which predate the very formation of the Brazilian state.
We warn that this intentional rupture will result in an increase in the violence and genocidal policies and practices historically promoted by both society and the state itself against Indigenous peoples. From the earliest periods of history to the present day, including the dark legacy of the military dictatorship, the consequences of which still echo in our lives.
We also emphasize that, just as our ancestors did, we will resist to the end, even if it means putting our own lives on the line, to protect what is most sacred to us: our Mother Earth. We are committed to the right to live in dignity and freedom, seeking the good life of current and future generations of our peoples and humanity.
What concerns us is not death. We know this intimately. Death and life are part of this serpent of time that moves over the earth, in the waters and in the tops of the tallest trees. What concerns us is the cowardice of those who try to dominate indomitable time and seek to profit from our deaths. In this statement we say: NO MORE TIME FOR YOU!
We vehemently reject any attempt by the federal government to resume public policies without guaranteeing what is essential: the demarcation, protection and sustainability of Indigenous territories in the first place. Any initiative that does not prioritize these aspects will only be a palliative and insufficient measure. It is essential that land demarcation is respected and protected, without deviations or manipulations, including actions aimed at distorting this process, such as President Lula’s recent statements. The territorial rights of Indigenous peoples are NON-NEGOTIABLE and must be preserved at all costs.
On the first day of the ATL mobilization, a decision by Justice Gilmar Mendes, who is the rapporteur for the lawsuits on the Indigenous Genocide Law (14.701), once again showed his bias in favor of rural landowners and his historical anti-Indigenous stance. Despite recognizing that the law contradicts decisions made by the STF on indigenous lands, Mendes, instead of annulling the law, suspended all actions aimed at guaranteeing the maintenance of Indigenous rights. In addition, he submitted the issue of the fundamental rights of Indigenous peoples to the Court’s conciliation unit and once again we affirm:
OUR RIGHTS CANNOT BE NEGOTIATED! The minister wants to give the green light for those who want to invade our lands to ride roughshod over our lives. Faced with this anti-indigenous decision made by a single minister, it remains to be seen whether all the other ministers of the Supreme Court will stand by or will oppose this decision of death!
We will never accept the legalization of the ongoing genocide of our peoples. Likewise, we vehemently repudiate the opening up of our territories to developments that run counter to the urgency of the climate crisis and global warming. Such developments represent a direct threat to Mother Nature, the forests, our rivers, biodiversity, fauna and flora, as well as all the riches and forms of life that we have preserved for millennia. If there are resources available to compensate invaders, why not use them to demarcate Indigenous Lands? If there is a need to buy land, let it be to resettle the invaders, and not to displace our peoples from their original lands. PRESIDENT LULA, WE DON’T WANT TO LIVE ON FARMS! Rui Costa, the Chief of Staff, must be prevented from continuing to “call the shots” on the approval of Indigenous Lands.
We will never accept the legalization of the ongoing genocide of our peoples. Likewise, we vehemently repudiate the opening up of our territories to developments that run counter to the urgency of the climate crisis and global warming. Such developments represent a direct threat to Mother Nature, the forests, our rivers, biodiversity, fauna and flora, as well as all the riches and forms of life that we have preserved for millennia. If there are resources available to compensate invaders, why not use them to demarcate Indigenous Lands? If there is a need to buy land, let it be to resettle the invaders, and not to displace our peoples from their original lands. PRESIDENT LULA, WE DON’T WANT TO LIVE ON FARMS! Rui Costa, the Chief of Staff, must be prevented from continuing to “call the shots” on the approval of Indigenous lands.
We don’t accept this situation. We will be vigilant so that President Lula fulfills his commitment to set up, within 15 days, a Task Force, made up of the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples, the General Secretariat of the Presidency and the Attorney General’s Office, to talk to the Three Powers and demarcate all our lands once and for all. We also hope that this Task Force will have the effective participation of our peoples and organizations.
We fight for the land because it is there that we cultivate our cultures, our social organization, our languages, customs and traditions. Above all, our right to remain Indigenous lies in our lands and territories. We are citizens with rights, we are our own representatives, we village politics and we will continue to demarcate Brazil.
OUR LANDMARK IS ANCESTRAL. WE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN HERE. AND WE WILL ALWAYS BE HERE! WITHOUT DEMARCATION THERE IS NO DEMOCRACY!
Free Land Camp, Brasilia, April 26, 2024
Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB)
Articulation of Indigenous Peoples and Organizations of the Northeast, Minas Gerais and
Espírito Santo (Apoinme)
Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of the Southern Region (Arpinsul)
Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of the Southeast (Arpinsudeste)
General Assembly of the Kaiowá and Guarani People (Aty Guasu)
Guarani Yvyrupa Commission
Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (Coiab)
Terena People’s Council
This article was translated from Portuguese from an article originally published in Brasil de Fato.
Without demarcation, with violence: Indigenous peoples criticize proposal of conciliation
We won’t make a coalition and sell our territorial rights,’ said Kari Guajajara during the 2nd day of encampment
The demarcation of Indigenous lands continues to be the main topic of the Free Land Camp (Acampamento Terra Livre, in Portuguese). The dispute led by the agribusiness caucus in the Brazilian Congress over the time frame limitation thesis continues to weaken the rights and security of Indigenous peoples in Brazil. Since the approval, in December 2023, of Law 14.701/2023, known as the Time Frame Law, at least nine Indigenous individuals have been murdered, and more than 23 conflicts in Indigenous territories have occurred in the country, according to data from the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (Apib, in Portuguese).
“The Federal Constitution established a regime of territorial protection and protection of the rights of Indigenous peoples. But in 2024, this regime is still being disputed by the large colonial economic elites,” said Apib’s legal coordinator, Mauricio Terena, opening the plenary session “The challenges faced by Indigenous peoples in the face of the approval of the Time Frame Limitation Law,” held on Tuesday (23), in the encampments’ main tent.
In September, Indigenous peoples from all over the country celebrated the judgment of the Supreme Court (STF, in Portuguese), which ruled that the time frame limitation thesis was unconstitutional. However, at the end of 2023, the National Congress – going against the Judiciary – approved the Time Frame Limitation Law, which establishes that only lands occupied by Indigenous peoples before 1988, the year the Constitution was promulgated, can be demarcated.
The text also provides for cooperation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people to economically exploit the territories; more bureaucratization of the demarcation process (which currently takes about 30 years); and the possibility of contesting lands that have already been regularized.
“The constitutional text is being mischaracterized. The very rights of indigenous peoples and the exclusive use of our lands are being mischaracterized. There needs to be a strong response from us saying quite clearly that we are not happy,” argued Mauricio Terena.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva vetoed some parts of the bill, but the vetoes were overturned in Congress, and the law was enacted. Now, the dispute has returned to the Supreme Court through lawsuits filed by Abip, together with leftist parties Rede and Psol, and by the agribusiness sector, through right-wing political parties Liberal Party, Progressive Party and Republicans.
Surprise and deception
The Indigenous lawyers who took part in the plenary session said they were surprised and disappointed by the decision handed down on Monday (22) by Supreme Court Minister Gilmar Mendes to suspend all lawsuits dealing with the constitutionality of law 14.701/2023 until the Court’s final decision.
Mendes also ordered that a conciliation process be set up between the parties involved in the lawsuits. The first conciliation hearing between Indigenous organizations, political parties and entities related to agribusiness should take place within 30 days.
“We’re not here to form a coalition and sell or raffle off our territorial rights. We don’t negotiate with the time frame limitation thesis,” said Kari Guajajara, the legal advisor to the Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (Coiab, in Portuguese). “It is extremely concerning to see that all the powers that were theoretically in a process of dispute seem much more aligned in an absurd attempt to remove and weaken Indigenous rights,” she added.
Time frame limitation thesis threatens the territorial rights of Indigenous peoples / Rafa Stédile
Felício Pontes, the Regional Prosecutor of the Republic, said that the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPF, in Portuguese) and the Federal Public Defender’s Office (DPU, in Portuguese) were also taken by surprise, “a decision we didn’t expect.” According to him, the prosecutors are currently monitoring around 900 appeals brought against Indigenous peoples by representatives of five activities: “loggers, farmers, mining companies, energy companies and monoculture companies, especially in the Amazon.”
“How can these appeals be brought to a conciliation table?” he asked. “There are things that cannot be reconciled. What are we going to give up so that this conciliation can take place? We have to say no to conciliation. As the Indigenous peoples themselves say, “land is a mother, and mothers can’t be negotiated”, the prosecutor argued.
Lack of land demarcations leads to more violence
“It seemed that this year’s Free Land Encampment would be a time to celebrate,” said Aléssia Tuxá, a public defender from the state of Bahia, alluding to the recent institutional achievements of Indigenous communities, such as the creation of the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples, the occupation of the presidency of the National Foundation for Indigenous Peoples (FUNAI, in Portuguese) by Joenia Wapichana and the overturning of the time frame limitation thesis by the Supreme Court.
In addition to the return of the threat of the time frame limitation, the joy of the twentieth edition of Brazil’s largest Indigenous mobilization is haunted by the delay in demarcating Indigenous lands, which are already in the final stages of the homologation process, and by the increase in violence against leaders, problems that are connected.
During the transition, President Lula committed to demarcating 14 indigenous lands in his first 100 days in office. But more than a year later, only 10 have been approved. “The delay in demarcating Indigenous Lands, coupled with the approval of law 14.701/2023, strengthens violence against indigenous people in Brazil,” says Apib.
Data from the 38th Conflicts in the Countryside Brazil Report, released by the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT, in Portuguese) on Monday (22), shows that Indigenous people were the most murdered in conflicts in the countryside in 2023: of the 31 people killed in disputes, 14 were Indigenous.
“How are conflicts going to be resolved in this country if the rights of Indigenous peoples are not respected? If, without suspending the effects of this law [the time frame limitation], lands continue to not be demarcated, violence continues to advance on Indigenous territories and Indigenous people continue to be killed in the process? We can’t have a discourse that relativizes all this,” defended Kari Guajajara.
For Aléssia Tuxá, Indigenous mobilization in spaces like the Free Land Encampment is essential to combat threats to the rights of Indigenous peoples.
“It’s not just Indigenous lawyers or our relatives who are occupying the institutions that are going to make the landmark law fall and land demarcations happen. It’s the strength of our movement. It’s the strength of our leaders, of our people marching all over Brazil to gather here once again. It’s the strength of our elders, who are among us and those who aren’t anymore, and of our youth who are here, drinking from this fountain of struggle and resisting once again,” he said.
“Because we already know that the history of this country is built upon our blood. It is all a process of denying the rights of our people. But it is mainly, and this is what the textbooks don’t tell us: a process of struggle and resistance by Indigenous peoples,” added the public defender.
Edited by: Flávia Quirino
INTERNATIONALIST 360° 