For Brazilian Indians the Bad from Rousseff’s Era Has Become Worse

In addition to being a politician and a constitutionalist lawyer, President Michel Temer is fond of writing poems, some of which have been published in a book, Anônima Intimidade (Anonymous Intimacy). Before him, other politicians had already ventured into literature.

In 1980, Senator José Sarney managed to get himself a seat – chair No. 38 – at the Brazilian Academy of Letters, in spite of his doubtful literary abilities, as famous writer Millôr Fernandes duly warned.

In some cases, it was the other way around: some great writers ventured into politics. In 1868, for example, when José de Alencar was appointed Minister of Justice, he was already considered the most important novelist of Brazilian Romanticism.

While in Europe this artistic movement was characterized by the idealization of medieval characters, in Brazil the epic characters were indigenous and African slaves. The literary exaltation of these peoples, known as romantic indigenism, aimed at building the cultural identity of a country recently emancipated from Portugal.

One hundred and fifty years after José de Alencar published the famous indigenist trilogy O Guarani (1857), Iracema (1865) and Ubirajara (1874), a new narrative has been established which, far from praising the indigenous peoples as an inseparable component of Brazilian culture, defines them as an obstacle to the country’s development.

A most obvious expression of Brazilian anti-indigenism happened on January, 14, when Resolution 68/17 of the Ministry of Justice was published. Warmly approved by Temer, this resolution was strongly criticized by indigenous and civil society organizations, which pointed out that the intention of the government is to dispossess indigenous peoples of their ancestral territories, through compensation offers.

According to members of the National Council of Indigenous Policy, the aforementioned resolution was adopted by surprise, without any prior dialogue or consultation, thus contradicting the international standards for state decisions affecting the rights of indigenous peoples.

After a statement by the Federal Public Prosecutor questioning the legality of Resolution 68/17, it was replaced by Resolution 80/17, which maintains the main provisions criticized both by the Public Prosecutor and by civil society.

Among other measures, the new resolution creates a political body which can stop and even reverse the land demarcation processes carried out by the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI).

Until last week, FUNAI was the technical entity responsible for identifying indigenous territories. Today, this can be done by other bodies subordinate to the Ministry of Justice, which means that a political filter is being imposed on a decision that, under the rule of law, should be based purely on technical criteria.

It should be noted that anti-indigenism is not an invention of the current government. During the presidency of Dilma Rousseff, indigenous policy was subordinated to the interests of the “ruralist group”, a powerful congressional front of big landowners and agribusiness entrepreneurs. Also, congressmen linked to ultra-religious sectors suggested evangelization as an option for the integration of indigenous peoples into society.

The co-optation of the state by large building companies and corporations in the mining-energy sector added another component to the agony of the indigenous peoples, in whose lands rights were granted for carrying out pharaonic works, such as the Belo Monte hydroelectric plant, a true anti-jewel of Rousseff’s crown.

Her legacy as regards indigenous peoples can be summed up with a speech of January 2015, by the then Minister of Agriculture and current senator Kátia Abreu: “Brazil requires a one-off agrarian reform, since large estates no longer exist in this country. Land conflicts with indigenous people take place because they have left the jungle and have gone down to production areas”.

After years of regression, the current government seems ready to give in even more to the parliamentary fronts that stifled indigenous policy during Rousseff’s administration.

The recent resolution of the Ministry of Justice is just one example of how the rights of historically discriminated populations have been subjected to the corporate interests and conservative positions of the current masters of the Federative Republic of Brazil.

Just look at the ethnic-racial and gender uniformity of Temer’s volatile cabinet, made up mostly of white men and political bosses who are being prosecuted for electoral crimes.

Temer seems to get his inspiration from the politician-poet José Sarney rather than from the poet-politician José de Alencar.

In memory of former Minister of Justice, José de Alencar

Daniel Cerqueira is a Lawyer, Senior Program Officer at the Due Process for Law Foundation (DPLF). Twitter: @dlcerqueira

Erika Yamada is the representative for Latin America and the Caribbean in the Expert Mechanism on the Law of the Indigenous Peoples of the UN.

This article appeared originally in Open Democracy – https://www.opendemocracy.net

Tags:

You May Also Like

Despite Strict Laws, Child Labor in Brazil Is Not Going Away

Children and adolescents are frequently found working in markets and slaughterhouses in municipalities of ...

Victims of the massacre get buried in close-by graves - Photo: Dinho Santos

Eviction in Brazil Ends Up in the Massacre by Police of Ten People

Ten campesinos (nine men and one woman) were killed by Brazil’s military and civilian ...

Indians Kick Tear Gas and attack police with arrows - Wilson Dias/ABr

In Brazil, Guns and Tear Gas Are No Match for Indians’ Arrows

  Brazilian Indians defied police repression in Brazil’s capital city on Tuesday, as officers ...

The cover of The Musician

The Musician: An Excerpt by a Celebrated Best-selling Brazilian Author

Dr. Heloisa Prieto is one of Brazil’s most celebrated children and YA authors. As ...

Women walk along the Dutra highway to reach Guarulhos International Airport - Photo by Thomson Reuters Foundation

Victims of Human Trafficking These Women Are Jailed in Brazil as Drug Mules

Helena had been struggling to provide for her six-year-old son in Africa’s island nation ...

Tree trunks loaded on a truck in the Brazilian Amazon

Zero Deforestation Is the Only Answer in this Side of the Amazon

Perched at the easternmost edge of the Amazon rainforest is Maranhão, one of Brazil’s ...

A supporter of Bolsonaro is detained during a demonstration against President Lula in Brasilia, January 8, 2023. REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino

Brazil’s Escalation of Facial Recognition Alarms Human Rights Experts

Police in Brazil are using facial recognition to identify protesters who rampaged through government ...