Movement for ‘Independence’ of Amazon searches installation of a country in Brazil´s northern

Mencius Melo – da Revista Cenarium

MANAUS/BELÉM – Amazon as an independent country. This is the idea proposed by “Independent Amazon Movement” of the Cultural Association of Amazon´s People (CAAP), that idealizes the emancipation of the northern region of the country.

“Brazil is an Amazon´s invasive nation”, said to the report of CENARIUM MAGAZINE the sociologist Ângelo Madson Tupinambá, communication director of CAAP, Non-Governmental Organization, founded in 2019 and officially registered in Manaus, in Amazonas.

The ‘independentist’ and not ‘separatist’ movement – how it wants to be recognized – according to historian Julian Machado, from Manaus, it is inspired at the biggest popular revolution that happened in Brazil´s northern: a Cabanagem. It is not perhaps that the movement is called of ‘Cabanagem 2.0’

Among the independists staves are the adoption of a single flag of the future country ‘Republic of Amazon´s People’ whose the capital would be Santarém, in Pará, that would become a neutral district and would form a kind of diagonal corridor to connect the big cities of Belém (PA), Manaus (AM) e Porto Velho (RO).

“Always existed this feeling of belonging to a nation that has a history and an unique culture and an unique people that is the amazonid people”, highlighted Ângelo Tupinambá.

Endocolonialism

For the sociologist, it is needed to break with the encolonialism of brazilian national State and with the ideas that are crystallized in the popular imaginary and in the official speech. “Everything that happens bad with our region has Brazil´s finger” criticized Ângelo.

“We have been subjugated throughout history, history that is grounded on demographic rhetoric that the Amazon is a “big human empty”, which, obviously, is not truth”, he observed.

However the manauara historian Julian Machado reinforces that is questionable the role attributed to the brazilian State, in the geopolitical formation of the Northern Region. He reinforces that Portugal had two colonies: Brazil and Grão – Pará.

“Grão – Pará did not dialogue with Rio de Janeiro (then colony´s capital) and was a province totally conneted to Portugal, so much is that our annexation to Brazil is exactly 197 years old, but this is not taught in our schools”, observed the historian.

For the sociologist, it is needed to break with the encolonialism of brazilian national State and with the ideas that are crystallized in the popular imaginary and in the official speech. “Everything that happens bad with our region has Brazil´s finger” criticized Ângelo.

Expansion

As the movement is recent, the organization is looking to expand in all Amazon´s States. With the political nucleus in Belém and in Manaus, Ângelo informs that have already had supporters in Roraima, Rondônia, Tocantins and Amapá, besides Pará and Amazonas, of course.

“We are searching for allies in Acre, which is the only state that we did not move forward yet”, added Ângelo Tupinambá.

Despite remembering divisive movements, like those who operated in Spain and in Ireland until the 1990s, the organization discards any propensity to armed struggle and evaluetes in the future to become a political party.

“Our organization is culture and the plebiscite is our flag, for that we believe that our obliquity has a seductive role, because we need win hearts and minds”, defined Tupinambá.

For example, Ângelo quotes the next cultural step of the group that is remember, on 16th October, the “Massacre of Brigue Clown *” happened in Belém, in the year of 1823. “We need to rescue those dates that are very important for the reaffirmation of our history”, he commented.

“Our priority fight is manage to make Amazon´s history become part of the curriculum of basic education in our region”, said Julian Machado.

“It´s an adventure”

For the teacher of the Department of Social Sciences at the Federal University of Amazonas (Ufam), Luiz Antônio, the proposal of Amazon´s independence has no support in reality.

“It is even romantic, beautiful, motivacional, folk, however it is completely unreal. It is an adventure.”, he synthesized.

According to the sociologist, it is possible to understand the revolt, however it is necessary to understand that be at the ‘center’ of the decisions doesn´t mean having a better quality of life.

“If this was the case, peripheral neighborhoods of Manaus, which housed the government palace like Santa Etelvina (periphery of the North Zone of Manaus), would be a marvel. In fact, the Compensa neighborhood (West Zone of Manaus) today houses the headquarters of the government and of the city hall, the Compensa is not an earring, on the contrary…”, he highlighted.

Still according to Luiz Antônio, it is not necessary take off from Brasilia to make gains. “The question is that we need to have robust national policies, for example: before Lula´s government, we had few technical schools, at the end of his government, 400 schools scattered throughout Brazil were built, including in Amazon´s States”, he observed.

“A detachment from Brazil would force us to build the Judiciary, Legislative, Executive, health, education, security, and food structures, apart from that, in order to become a national reality, we would also have to have a base of science, technology, trade and industry. It is not simple”, he observed.

To conclude, the academic considered: “It is much more sophisticated that these people struggle to do quality policy”, finished.