Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has vetoed the core aspects of a bill passed by Congress that threatened to undo protections of Indigenous peoples’ land rights. The bill proposed to enshrine a legal theory arguing that the date Brazil’s Constitution was promulgated — Oct.
Indigenous Xikrin warriors return from a failed attempt to expel land squatters from the Trincheira Bacaja Indigenous Indigenous territory, in Brazilian Amazon, Para state, Brazil, Aug. 24, 2019. Brazil’s government on Monday, Oct. 2, 2023, began removing non-indigenous people from two Indigenous territories in a move that will affect thousands living in the Amazon rainforest’s heart.
Backers of the legislation said it was needed to provide legal security to landowners, saying there is discomfort in rural areas due to a perceived lack of limits to the expansion of Indigenous territories. Lula vetoed all references to the deadline theory and other provisions deemed harmful to Indigenous rights, such as allowing mining and the cultivation of genetically modified organisms.
Célia Xakriabá, a federal lawmaker from the southeastern state of Minas Gerais, celebrated Lula’s action but said that “the project still deals with other very serious issues for indigenous peoples.”has given significantly more attention to the demands of Indigenous peoples