3,000 indigenous people gather in Brasilia to protest ruralist agenda

Kayapo Indians dancing at this year’s indigenous encampment in Brasilia. Image by Christian Braga/MNI. On 26 April, more than 3,000 indigenous people marched down the broad Avenue of the Ministries in Brasilia, leaving a path of ‘blood’ (red paint) behind them. When they reached the Justice Ministry, they unfurled a giant banner, 24 meters (78 feet) across by 12 meters (39 feet) high, demanding an “End to Indigenous Genocide.” They chanted: “FUNAI [the government’s indigenous agency] belongs to the Indians, not to the ruralists, [the agribusiness elite].” The demonstrators, representing over a hundred different indigenous groups from all over Brazil, were taking part in the 15th Free Land Camp (Acampamento Terra Livre). They camped for five days in Brasilia’s center and carried out a program of assemblies, cultural events and meetings. Unlike last year, the protests unfolded peacefully, without police repression. “This trail of blood represents all the violence imposed by the state on this country’s original inhabitants, which continues today through the slow pace at which our land is being demarcated,” said the indigenous leader Marcos Xukuru from Pernambuco state. “Indians are being assassinated and our leaders are being criminalized but, even so, we will always go on resisting and fighting for our rights, as our ancestors have taught us to do.” Brazil has become the most dangerous nation on earth for indigenous leaders, social activists, and environmentalists, as violence and murders have escalated over recent years, a record that has only worsened under the lax law enforcement of…

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