Lula fails (again) to fulfill indigenous land promises

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Thursday night signed decrees to demarcate two indigenous lands out of an expected six.

The Aldeia Velha indigenous land of the Pataxó people in Bahia has an area close to 2,000 hectares and is home to about 320 families, according to the presidential office. The Cacique Fontoura land in Mato Grosso is about 32,000 hectares and home to about 489 members of the Karajá people.

During the ceremony at the Justice Ministry, Lula admitted that the administration failed to demarcate four other lands, as expected by the crowd of indigenous leaders.

“You imagined today you would get the news of six indigenous lands signed by me here”, he said. “We have a problem … Some lands are occupied, some of them by farmers, others by common people, possibly as poor as us. Some have 800 non-indigenous people occupying them, others have more”.

The president added: “Some governors requested time to know how we will take those people out, because I can’t get there with the police and be violent with the people there.”

In 2023, Lula’s administration demarcated eight other indigenous lands.

Far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro kept one of his campaign promises by not demarcating a single indigenous land during his term (2019-2022). He also backed the so-called “time-frame argument,” which claims October 5, 1988 — the date the Brazilian Constitution was enacted — as the cut-off point for land rights. 

In the runoff of the 2022 election, Mr. Bolsonaro received zero votes in 143 polling stations, many of them in indigenous lands.

In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court last year ruled by 9-2 that the time-frame argument is unconstitutional. Congress later reacted by approving the time-frame into legislation.

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