This content was published on April 19, 2023 – 3:36 pm April 19, 2023 – 3:36 pm
Brasilia, 19 April (EFE).- Brazil celebrates for the first time this Wednesday the “National Day of Indigenous Peoples”, known as “Indian Day” since 1943, with a brand new ministry dedicated to protecting communities of origin .
Progressive President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who succeeded far-right Jair Bolsonaro on January 1, viewed the existence of the Ministry for Indigenous Peoples, which he created in one of his first government decisions, as a “pride” for Brazil.
“For the first time in Brazil we are living the experience of having a ministry for indigenous peoples headed by an indigenous woman,” he said on his social networks, referring to Sônia Guajajara, head of that ministry.
According to Lula, “the struggle of indigenous peoples to preserve the environment and our planet is historic and must be valued and supported,” which is one of his government’s key “commitments.”
The so-called “Indian Day” was instituted in Brazil in 1943 in response to a decision of the First Inter-American Indigenous Congress held three years earlier in Patzcuaro, Mexico.
That designation was retained until the middle of last year, when the Brazilian parliament approved the current form of Indigenous Peoples’ Day in a project passed by a large majority despite opposition from then-President, far-right Jair Bolsonaro.
Although there has been no major official action so far, the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples took the opportunity to launch a campaign in defense of indigenous communities and “for a Brazil never again without us”.
According to this office, it is about “making visible the struggle of the 305 indigenous peoples who are resisting and who live in Brazil and who guarantee the preservation of 274 spoken languages”.
According to official figures, indigenous peoples in Brazil occupy 13.7% of the state’s territory with 610 indigenous areas, 487 of which are approved and already considered reserves.
Of these, the vast majority with 329 demarcated areas are in the Brazilian Amazon.
The demarcation of indigenous territories was completely paralyzed during the four years of the Bolsonaro administration, which also promoted measures to allow mineral exploitation in these regions, despite being protected by environmental laws.
Between 2019 and 2022, when the far-right leader was in power, indigenous people repeatedly denounced this policy and the “duty” they had been sentenced to do by the government.
According to Lula’s government, this was demonstrated last January when the government identified a critical health situation in the Yanomami area in the north of the country, where hundreds of indigenous people were severely malnourished.
The authorities attributed this chaotic situation to the action of thousands of illegal miners dedicated to the extraction of gold and other elements who have already been evicted from the region, but dumping mercury and other polluting substances into the rivers, affecting the diet and health of the people Aborigines at risk. EFE
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