In Brazil, a crucial trial over the future of hundreds of indigenous lands in the demarcation trial before the Supreme Court this Wednesday was postponed again shortly after it was resumed.
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The action was taken after Judge André Mendonça asked for more time to analyze the case. The trial was postponed 90 days under Supreme Court rules.
“It needs more time to analyze, to think, not just for me but for the entire referee,” explained Mendonça.
Bolsonaro-appointed Supreme Court Justice André Mendonça called for more time to review the thesis limiting indigenous lands delimitation and postponed the trial, which resumed this afternoon. pic.twitter.com/jt4kpZOf37
— André Vieira (@AndreteleSUR)
June 7, 2023
The STF judges must rule on the validity of the “temporary framework” criterion, according to which only those areas whose inhabitants can prove that they were there before October 5, 1988 can be demarcated. This would mean that those cities that cannot prove this can be demarcated, if they have already occupied their territory before that date they can be expelled.
The STF is adjudicating the case of the Ibirama-Laklanõ territory of the Xokleng, Kaingang and Guaraní peoples in Santa Catarina state in the south of the country, which lost its reserve status in 2009 after a lower court accepted the argument the groups did not live there in 1988.
His ruling will have what is known in Brazil as a “general impact” and could affect around 250 disputed areas of the 750 existing reserves.
The trial resumed this Wednesday after being postponed in September 2021. By then, two of the eleven judges, Luiz Edson Fachin voted against and Kassio Nunes Marques voted in favour.
On the day of this Wednesday, Judge Alexandre de Moraes voted, who also ruled against; This leaves two votes against and one yes vote.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva rejects the crackdown on the indigenous population.