Brazilian indigenous protest against territorial demarcation | News

The Guarani Mbyada indigenous people in Sao Paulo, Brazil began an act of protest this Sunday against the temporary framework, the legal thesis that changes the understanding for the demarcation of territories of the native peoples of the South American country.

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According to information from local media, the original place of the protest was changed after a decision by the Court of Justice of São Paulo (TJ-SP), last Saturday, prohibiting the act on the highway.

However, after the publication of the ruling, the indigenous entities described the decision as "unconstitutional" and guaranteed that the act would be carried out.

According to the spokesman for the Jaraguá Indigenous Land, Antony Karaí Poty, “next week the trial of the deadline begins in the Federal Supreme Court, so speaking is a constitutional right and we will continue speaking. If they don't let us do [el acto] in one space, we do it in another. But the people will not stop demonstrating."

The territorial demarcation thesis is included in bill 490, which was approved in the Chamber of Deputies last Tuesday and now awaits a vote in the Senate.

At the same time, next Wednesday, the Federal Supreme Court (STF) will meet again to evaluate the thesis of the temporary framework. So far, only two ministers have spoken and there would be a tie. The understanding of the Supreme Court will prevail, however, over any decision of Congress.

From the Association of Indigenous Peoples (Apib) they said that "indigenous peoples have the right to be against the clock and carry out peaceful and orderly demonstrations, guaranteeing the right to come and go of all Brazilian citizens in the closure of the highway, with free roads for the passage of vehicles, without violating anyone's right to come and go, but guaranteeing the right to demonstrate”.

The term is a legal thesis defended by agribusiness, repudiated by indigenous organizations and considered unconstitutional by jurists and lawyers, indigenous and non-indigenous.

The proposal radically changes the criteria for demarcations by establishing that only the lands already occupied by indigenous peoples on October 5, 1988 -the date of promulgation of the Constitution- can be claimed by them.

The Missionary Indigenous Council (Cimi) says that 60 percent of Brazil's 1,400 indigenous lands are not regularized. Nearly 600 have not even started the demarcation process. If it becomes law, the term will be the main argument for landowners and large companies to question the still unfinished demarcations.