The move marks the failure of President Lula da Silva’s push to protect Indigenous rights and prevent the destruction of the Amazon.
Brazil’s conservative-majority Congress has voted to reduce the authority of two ministries dedicated to supporting Indigenous rights and protecting the environment, following opposition from the South American country’s powerful agribusiness industry.
In a 51-9 vote in the Senate on Thursday, Brazilian lawmakers moved to strip the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples and the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change of some of their powers. The measure was quickly passed by the lower house of parliament the other day.
Opposing what he called “restrictions on agribusiness that harm exports”, Senator Carlos Viana said in the voting session on Thursday that “the main points [of the caucus] answered.”
The vote marks a setback for Brazil’s left-wing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who has vowed to put Indigenous rights and the fight against climate change front and center after the years of neglect under his far-right predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro.
Indigenous peoples and environmentalists hope that Lula’s victory in last year’s election will improve their fortunes after Bolsonaro’s tenure, whose government is blamed for record deforestation and violence against Indigenous people.
But Thursday’s vote highlighted the political hold on power of Brazil’s agribusiness industry, and critics expressed disappointment at what they saw as a lackluster effort on Lula’s part to fight the cuts.
The changes prevent the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples from legalizing the boundaries of new Indigenous territories and prevent the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change from managing a property registry — a central tool to track deforestation and manage water resources.
The return of such authorities represents a major success for Brazil’s “beef caucus”, which is closely aligned with the country’s large cattle and agricultural industries that make up the main elements of Bolsonaro’s constituency.
The caucus opposes the legalization of more Indigenous lands, as well as any measures to control deforestation.
During the Bolsonaro administration, deforestation in Brazil’s section of the Amazon rainforest has reached alarming new heights as agribusiness interests and illegal commercial enterprises expand their operations in the region.
Watchdog groups say the government has largely turned a blind eye, and Indigenous communities are often subjected to violence and abuse.
On Tuesday, Indigenous rights advocates suffered another setback as the lower house of Congress passed a bill banning the establishment of Indigenous reservations on lands they did not exist in 1988, when it was adopted. the current Constitution.
Indigenous groups argue that the cutoff violates their rights, as many were forced from their ancestral lands, especially during Brazil’s 1964-1985 military dictatorship.
In a post on Twitter on Thursday, the Indigenous rights group Survival International called that bill a “kiss of death for the Indigenous peoples of Brazil and their increasingly diverse territories”.
