We, the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (Apib), launched the Indigenous Emergency campaign in 2020 to address the devastating context of humanitarian, health, and political crisis during the Covid-19 pandemic.
We decided not to die!
The pandemic and the anti-indigenous government of Jair Bolsonaro forced us to promote an intense mobilization to confront yet another genocide against our peoples.
Despite several advances in our struggles, threats to our rights, dignity, and the protection of our cultures and territories have intensified.
In 2023, we are relaunching ‘Indigenous Emergency’ because it was never ‘just a virus’!
We are forced to face, in our daily lives, the violence of racism that is deeply rooted in society and in the structures of the State.
Stop killing us!
Invasions, murders, threats, criminalization of leaders, violations of our rights…
Harrowing contexts that have been an integral part of colonization and the military dictatorship that have never ceased to exist for Indigenous peoples.
We must bravely address the violence and homicides inflicted upon women and Indigenous LGBTQIAP+ individuals.
The genocidal project against our peoples, the theft of our ancestral territories, and the exploitation of our natural resources persist with renewed strength, jeopardizing our lives, the reproduction of our cultures, and the very survival of life on the planet.
Rights are non-negotiable!
The ruralist invention of the Time Frame Thesis, regarding the demarcation of Indigenous Lands, has triggered a series of threats at all levels of power.
Legislative proposals such as the PL 2903 and PEC 48 regarding the Time Frame, the PL 191 for mining, PEC 59, and attempts to establish the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI) on Demarcations are concrete examples of a state-sanctioned and legislated genocide.
The anti-Indigenous agenda of the National Congress is dominated by lawmakers advocating for the interests of owners of large tracts of land and invaders of our Territories.
We emphasize the Parliamentary Caucus of Agriculture and Mining as spaces created to legitimize our genocide.
The institutional tension brought about by the Time Frame proposition demonstrated a quid pro quo dynamic among the powers of the republic. Indigenous rights became a political bargaining chip.
Since 2016, the Democratic State of Rights has been under constant attack.
First, the political, judicial, and media sanctioned coup against President Dilma, followed by the Temer government, and the rise and electoral defeat of Bolsonarism.
Presently, the traditional right and Bolsonaro allies are actively working within Congress to consolidate influence, challenging the Executive and Judicial branches, prioritizing unconstitutional laws that serve their own economic interests.
The Indigenous movement has achieved historic advances, and we need to emphasize this. Apib brought the indigenous village to the political arena. The ‘Indigenous Campaign’ was central for the strengthening of Indigenous candidacies.
The Cocar Caucus led by Célia Xakriabá strengthens the political frontlines that need to be addressed in the National Congress.
We recognize the creation of the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples (MPI) and the appointment of Indigenous leaders to key positions within the Executive Branch as noteworthy achievements.
Sonia Guajajara as the Minister of MPI, Joênia Wapichana as the president of the National Foundation for Indigenous Peoples (FUNAI), and Weibe Tapeba as the Secretary of Indigenous Health.
The election of President Lula was a collective achievement. However, the electoral context compelled a broad ideological alliance, encompassing conservative and anti-Indigenous economic and political sectors.
Furthermore, the National Congress continues to be dominated by lawmakers backend by national and international corporations and stakeholders in agribusiness, aiming to undermine Indigenous rights.
The Cattle, Bible, and Bullet Caucuses represent a real threat to our lives!
Most State and Local Governments continue to be conservative and anti-Indigenous.
Brazilian politicians, serving in the National Congress and the executive branch, collectively possess 96,000 hectares of land encroaching upon Indigenous Territories.
They are funded by farmers who invade Indigenous Lands, who donated R$3.6 million to the election campaign of ruralists.
It’s a vast amount of land for few farmers.
Environmental degradation, land invasion, and the trampling of people’s rights may worsen with the proposed resurgence of major investments in infrastructure projects, embedded in the so-called PAC III.
Engagement in climate issues and the promotion of Indigenous rights have been on the rise in society.
Simultaneously, assaults and aggressions against Indigenous communities are escalating across all three branches of the Brazilian Republic.
The Lula administration stands at a crossroads, grappling with the task of curbing the enduring social influence of fascist forces despite their electoral defeat.
Lula needs to ensure commitments to the environment and the social movements that elected him while generating employment through economic growth.
For this, the government is banking on large projects, infrastructure developments, and investments, but it makes a mistake by including Indigenous lands in its policies for expanding capital development.
This is not the path to escape the crises that bind us.
The pressure from financial interests triggers a cruel escalation of territorial conflicts and violence, as well as racism, criminalization, and murders.
The problem lies in the configuration of the Brazilian state, which acts as the management committee for the retrogressive interests of the ruralist agenda.
Therefore, we reiterate that our emergency was never just about the Covid-19 virus.
The genocidal project against Indigenous Peoples and the theft of our ancestral territories persists with strength, jeopardizing our lives, the reproduction of our cultures, and the very survival of life on the planet.
We are resuming the ‘Indigenous Emergency’ campaign to structure the response to attacks on the lives of Indigenous Peoples.
We must persist in exposing the power dynamics that daily infringe upon our rights.
We continue to devote all our efforts to inform, strengthen, and mobilize the foundations of the movement for a sustained Indigenous mobilization in defense of our lives, cultures, territories, and rights.
Our response is through democracy, education, organization, and the collective fight for power to the people, united in the defense of the lives of all, in defense of life on Earth.
Our future depends on the demarcation, homologation, protection, and legal security of full and permanent possession of our lands!
We demand the implementation of differentiated public policies, such as education and health. Respect for the Law 11,645, which mandates the teaching of Indigenous and Afro-Brazilian history in the education system.
We need to defeat the ruralist’s political-economic power and reclaim our place in the spaces that shape the direction of our country. There will be no Brazil without Indigenous Peoples.