Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Thursday visited two indigenous reservations within the Amazon for the primary time as head of state, regardless of opposition from some tribal leaders to open their protected lands for industrial mining.
Bolsonaro, accompanied by military officers and sporting a headdress, watched members of the native Tucano group carry out a ritual dance within the Balio reservation, the place he inaugurated a bridge.
Regional indigenous leaders from the higher reaches of the Rio Negro River mentioned that they had not been invited to see Bolsonaro and that he had met non-representative chiefs in a photograph alternative for his re-election marketing campaign the next yr.
“Our institution is three decades old but we were not included in any dialogue on the President’s agenda or public policies for the region,” the Federation of Rio Negro indigenous organizations mentioned in an announcement.
“He met self-proclaimed leaders to make fake news.”
The President’s Office didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
The picket bridge that Bolsonaro inaugurated was constructed by the Brazilian military on a highway that results in the border with Venezuela, which passes by the Balio Reservation, the place main reserves of niobium have been discovered.
Metal is used to make gentle weight metal for jet engines and different particular functions. Bolsonaro has repeatedly talked about its worth in speeches about Amazon’s unused funds that Brazil ought to make the most of.
The Balio Reservation is above the Rio Negro on the border of Colombia and Venezuela on the northwest tip of Brazil.
Bolsonaro later visited and stayed in a single day at a navy border outpost in Maturaca, situated on the western finish of the Yanomami Reservation, the biggest in Brazil.
The jap a part of the reservation in Roraima State has been invaded by greater than 20,000 unlawful gold miners, who’ve been buoyed by Bolsonaro’s help for the legalization of wildcat mining in Brazil.
Yanomami leaders condemned the go to of the far-flung president for his reservations and reiterated his name to evacuate the miners from the authorities.
He mentioned in a letter to Bolsonaro, “The government must immediately remove the invaders from our territories to protect the health of us and Mother Earth.”
The letter signed by the leaders of Maturaka acknowledged, “We do not accept the legalization of mining activities on our land, as it would not benefit Yanomami.”
Bolsonaro’s go to got here on a day when gold miners illegally prospecting on indigenous lands on the banks of the Tapajos River within the Amazon shot useless in Munduruku village and burned the home of considered one of its leaders.
Brazil’s decrease home of Congress, the place Bolsonaro supporters have a majority, is at the moment contemplating laws proposed by the federal government that might open the door to industrial mining and agriculture on indigenous reservations.
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
