POLICY

Brazil's highest court ruled in favor of indigenous people on ancestral lands

The Supreme Federal Court, Brazil's highest court, ruled this Thursday by a majority against the thesis of the temporary framework that forced the reduction of indigenous reserves and ancestral lands in the Amazon rainforest, in a resolution that deals a serious blow to the plans. agribusiness expansionists linked to former president Jair Bolsonaro.

  • 25/09/2023 • 23:26

The court rejected by 7 to 2 - two more votes remain - the presentation of the rural entities that wanted the indigenous lands claimed after the 1988 Constitution, which is currently in force, not to be recognized. The vote that has been going on for four years motivated mobilizations throughout the country of indigenous movements Brazil has just over a million inhabitants of indigenous peoples. The rapporteur of the case, Edson Fachin, maintained that the right of indigenous peoples to land predates the creation of the State and, therefore, should not be defined in any time frame. Judge Fachin recalled that the Constitution defines indigenous rights as "fundamental" and says that peoples have "original rights over the lands they traditionally occupy." The government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva opposed the thesis of the ruralistas, to the point that it is the first cabinet with a Ministry of Indigenous Peoples. On the contrary, the two votes of the highest court that supported the agribusiness request were from the judges appointed by Bolsonaro: the jurist and Presbyterian pastor André Mendonça and Nunes Marques.