Indigenous leaders from AM go to STF to fight against Temporal Milestone

Mencius Melo – From Cenarium Magazine

MANAUS – After approval of the Temporal Milestone, in the Lower House, on Tuesday, 30, indigenous leaders of original peoples that make up the human and political map of the Amazon met to articulate fall of the agenda in the Supreme Court (STF). They fight against the thesis that says that indigenous peoples only have the right to land if they were already occupying it at the time of the promulgation of the 1988 Constitution.

For this reason, representatives of the Baré, Tukano, Sateré-Mawé, Baniwa, Munduruku, Kokama, and Mura peoples, among others, chanted chants, slogans, and made speeches against PL 490. Socorro Baniwa, one of the leaders of the movement, told the CENARIUM MAGAZINE that the organization seeks other mechanisms of pressure for the trial on June 7, at the Brazilian Supreme Court.

“We believe and seek other alternatives so that we are heard, and this includes being present in the spaces,” she said. “We will go to Brasilia in a caravan, with about 150 leaders who will leave Manaus for the federal capital, on the occasion of the trial of the Temporal Milestone”, detailed.

Questioned about how to fund this displacement, Socorro Baniwa said they are counting on the support of the Indigenous Missionary Council (Cimi), the Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (Coiab) and Nia Tero, an international organization that supports indigenous populations around the world, as well as the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (Apib). “We are articulating with the larger organizations that make our struggle their struggle as well”, she declared.

Student Movement

Present at the act, Wanda Hitoto, from the Indigenous Student Movement of Amazonas (Meiam), criticized part of the political class and the processes that place representatives in the National Congress. “It is necessary to understand that we are occupying spaces, but, it is also necessary to understand that if we have the agenda of the Temporal Milestone defended by many in the National Congress, it is because we helped to elect these benches, that is: we are co-responsible for the political representation we have”, she criticized.

In concluding, Wanda Hitoto spoke to the youth about the responsibility of voting. “We are discussing with the student class, with our youth, to understand, critically, the political moment we are living, about the responsibility of our vote, because if we are electing people who are destroying our rights, we are the most responsible, because when you vote wrong you elect people who have no commitment to life, to the forest”, she concluded.