With Bolsonaro's encouragement, invasions of Indigenous lands increased 135% in 2019 alone, while recorded violence against Indigenous communities more than doubled over this same period. Now, Bolsonaro and his allies in Congress are moving ahead with bills like PL 490, PL 2633, and PDL 177 that will eliminate sovereign Indigenous territorial rights, authorize land grabs, and deny recognition of Indigenous peoples, respectively.
In short, Bolsonaro and his allies are preparing a new genocide of Indigenous life, requiring no less than our international struggle to join effort in defense of the indigenous people rights. APIB’s recently released International Dossier of Denounces tells the story of these unprecedented to the Indigenous Peoples of Brazil in clear detail.
Ours is a struggle for the life of the Amazon, too. The dispossession of Brazil's Indigenous peoples goes hand in hand with the deforestation of their lands to serve the profits of the settlers that displace them. “Where there is Indigenous land, there is wealth underneath it," Bolsonaro has said.
Under his presidency, deforestation of the Amazon has reached records highs: 11,000 kilometers cleared in 2020 alone. We are fast approaching the Amazon's 'tipping point,' when the rainforest will no longer produce enough rain to sustain itself. At that point, the rainforest will become a savannah: trees will die, fields will burn, and billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide will be sent in the atmosphere.
Our struggle, then, is for all life across the planet. The death of the Amazon and other Brazilian unique biomes, such as the Cerrado and Pantanal, will not only impact its frontline communities; in the accelerating collapse of our climate, the extinction of the rainforest will endanger ecosystems everywhere. In this way, the fate of Brazil's Indigenous peoples is entwined with the fate of our world.
That is why we are mobilizing to Brasília: to try to stop Bolsonaro, to defend the Amazon and the other Brazilian biomes, and to stand with its peoples. Our struggle takes as its target all governments that are complicit in Bolsonaro's campaign of genocide, all corporations that seek to profit from it. And in doing so, it calls on citizens around the world: the fight against Bolsonaro extends far beyond the borders of Brazil.
As we prepare to arrive in Brasília, we ask you to join us: on the streets, at your jobs, in your statehouses. Our struggle is your struggle. Our struggle is for life.
You can support the Articulation of Indigenous People of Brazil in their struggle here.
Photo: Alexander Gerst / Flickr
