Brazilian Indigenous People Demand Demarcation of Their Lands

Since Monday until Friday, thousands of Brazilian Indigenous people are participating in the 20th Free Land Camp to demand their ancestral rights to the land.

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Currently, Indigenous communities are fighting against the so-called "Temporal Framework," a proposal through which agricultural, mining, and forestry corporations seek to limit the Indigenous peoples' rights to only those lands they occupied when the 1988 Constitution was promulgated.

"Our framework is ancestral because we have always been here," is the motto of the Free Land Camp, an event held annually since 2004.

In September 2023, the Temporal Framework was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Federal Court. However, it was reintroduced into Brazilian legislation through a bill approved by the National Congress, which is controlled by right-wing parties linked to landowners.

The text reads, "Diversity in struggle in the Indigenous Emergency March. Our rights cannot be negotiated!"

Although that law was vetoed by Brazilian President Lula da Silva, congressmen overturned his veto and the Temporal Framework remains in force. Therefore, Indigenous peoples hope that the Supreme Court will reaffirm the unconstitutionality of a law that would severely limit their ancestral rights.

The Free Land Camp also denounced a new escalation of violence, as after the approval of this law, six Indigenous leaders were murdered.

During Jair Bolsonaro's administration, the Brazilian state stopped demarcating Indigenous lands, leaving Indigenous peoples at the mercy of extractivist businessmen.

This far-right politician supported the Temporal Framework thesis, arguing that Indigenous control of Amazonian territories hinders Brazilian economic development.