Ago 16 2024 | Nº. 130

Editorial

This week, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva reiterated his criticism of how Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro has handled the aftermath of the disputed July 28 election in his country. Despite several pollsters before, during, and after the vote suggesting an opposition victory, Maduro declared himself the winner and refused to release the raw electoral data. Lula’s Workers’ Party (PT) — traditionally divided on how to handle Venezuela — officially recognized Maduro’s claim, but the foreign ministry and Lula himself have been much more circumspect. Indeed, Brazil’s continued refusal to recognize Maduro’s victory has already lasted longer than many critics of Lula’s foreign policy thought it would, suggesting a genuine shift in Brazil’s relationship with its neighbor. On Friday, August 16, Lula described the Venezuelan government an “unpleasant regime” with “an authoritarian orientation” but stopped short of calling it a dictatorship. He noted Brazil’s vast commercial interests in Venezuela as a reason to remain engaged. 

In terms of domestic policy, new reporting this week by journalists Glenn Greenwald and Fabio Serapião once again drew heated debate over the actions of Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. Greenwald's investigation, based on thousands of private messages and published in Folha de S.Paulo, alleges that Moraes misused his powers by conducting investigations outside of the established legal protocols, particularly targeting supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro. This reporting has intensified the ongoing debate over Moraes' role in what Greenwald describes as a broader censorship regime in Brazil. Notably, that line, which deliberately and disingenuously presents the current Brazilian government as less than democratic, has become a hallmark of the extreme right. The new reporting is unlikely to lead to major changes in Brazil’s institutional landscape, but it does keep alive one of the main lines of attack that extremists have used to push back against legal accountability following the various antidemocratic actions carried out under Bolsonaro. 

Another Supreme Court minister this week also sought to reign in another pernicious legacy of the Bolsonaro years. This week, Flávio Dino, Lula’s former justice minister appointed to the highest court late last year, ruled against obligatory spending amendments that have helped to undermine executive authority in recent years by empowering individual legislators. Such spending amendments allow legislators to allocate government funds directly to their chosen projects. Dino's ruling, supported overwhelming by his colleagues during a Friday morning vote, imposed stricter transparency and accountability measures on these amendments, including mandatory audits and the requirement that the allocation process be fully documented and traceable. His decision is seen as part of a broader effort to address issues of corruption and misuse of public funds associated with these amendments. It is also an attempt to rebalance the separation of powers that Bolsonaro helped destabilize during his tumultuous four years.

Highlights

• New actions. Alexandre de Moraes, the Supreme Court justice responsible for conducting the main ongoing investigations into members of the far right linked to Bolsonaro, issued a new arrest warrant this week against two leading figures: Allan dos Santos, who is on the run in the United States, and Oswaldo Eustáquio, who has fled to Spain. Moraes accuses them of having tried to intimidate federal police officers when the agents attempted to comply with previous court orders. Eustáquio is also accused of corrupting a minor, for having accessed and used his own daughter's profile on social media when the police arrived at his house in the previous operation. In addition to these arrest warrents, Senator Marcos do Val is the target of the same operation that is prosecuting pro-Bolsonaro bloggers.

• Delfim Neto. Economist Delfim Neto, a former minister and congressman died on August 12 at the age of 96. Delfim Neto made history as one of the members of the military government that signed Institutional Act No. 5 in 1968, an executive branch decree that suspended individual freedoms, institutionalized illegal repression, and opened the door to the darkest period of the Brazilian military regime (1964-85). Despite his ties to the dictatorship, Delfim Neto later became an economic advisor to the governments of Presidents Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff. His legacy was hailed by members of the current government, including Minister of Finance Fernando Haddad and Lula himself.

• Central Bank. The Brazilian economic sector is eagerly awaiting the appointment of the new president of the Central Bank. The most likely candidate is Gabriel Galípolo, the institution's current director of Monetary Policy. Galípolo would replace the current president, Roberto Campos Neto, who was appointed to this position by Jair Bolsonaro. In Brazil, the president of the Central Bank has a four-year term. Appointments are made in the middle of the president's term, and they remain in office after a change of government. The new appointment will be made by Lula. The nominee will then undergo a hearing conducted by the Senate Committee on Economic Affairs. The change in the institution's leadership is expected to take place in September. And the new nominee will certainly be more aligned with Lula than the current president of the institution.

   

• Plane crash. Brazil is still experiencing the shock caused by the 62 deaths resulting from the crash of a passenger plane on August 9 in Vinhedo, in the interior of the State of São Paulo. Forensic doctors have been working this week to identify the bodies of ten victims of this tragedy. The black box was found in good condition. The most likely cause is the freezing of the wings at an altitude zone where the temperature was -40º. This plane crash with the fifth highest in the number of victims in Brazil.

News from the WBO, Organizations and Social Movements

Anniversary. Bem-Te-Vi is celebrating its tenth anniversary in 2024. The organization was founded in 2014 with the mission of contributing to the promotion of social justice and well-being, through support for socio-environmental and human rights initiatives, to strengthen civil society and democracy. Visit the website to learn more: bemtevidiversidade.org.br

Indigenous peoples. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights expressed this week “concern about the clashes recorded since July 13 between farmers and members of the Guarani Kaiowá indigenous people in Mato Grosso do Sul, in which at least ten people were injured.” The organization associated the episodes of violence with the Brazilian Congress’s insistence on continuing to force the imposition of the Temporal Framework, that bars the government from recognizing Indigenous territories not recognized as such when the 1988 Constitution was approved, despite the Supreme Court having declared this law unconstitutional in 2023.

Non-violence. The School of Activism is launching the book “Non-Violence – Principles and Political Practices of Brazilian Civil Society,” which maps out the forms of non-violent action of social movements and organizations that fight for political and social change in the country. The publication is available for reading online at this link. The School of Activism is an independent collective that works to strengthen activist groups through learning processes in strategies and techniques for non-violent and creative actions, campaigns, communication, mobilization, and security and comprehensive protection, aimed at defending democracy and human rights.

Journalism in the Amazon. The Vladimir Herzog Institute published a report on the situation of journalism and journalists who cover the Brazilian Amazon. The document “Frontiers of Information – Report on Journalism and Violence in the Amazon” is based on interviews with ten communication professionals who cover the region and contains reports of attacks and intimidation against professionals who report on illegal activities, such as mining on Indigenous lands and deforestation. Click on the link to read.

Funding. The Group of Institutes, Foundations and Companies and the PIPA Initiative have launched the first step in an online training initiative called “Strengthening Black Leadership: Training Cycle for Private Social Investment and Philanthropy.” The course is aimed at Black people, people from the outskirts of cities, LGBTQIA+ people and people with disabilities. More information at the link.

Feature Article

Indigenous Rights Must be Guaranteed and Not Negotiated

By Dinamam Tuxá*

The Temporal Framework thesis regarding the demarcation of Indigenous territories was declared unconstitutional by the Brazilian Supreme Court in September 2023, but threats against the fundamental rights of Indigenous peoples continue. On the same day that the anti-Indigenous thesis was overturned in the Supreme Court, Senator Hiran Gonçalves (Progressive Party) presented a proposed amendment to the constitution (PEC) 48/2023 in the Senate. The proposal must be discussed in the Committee on Constitution, Justice and Citizenship by October 30.

Named by the Indigenous movement as the “PEC of Death,” the proposal aims to amend Article 231 of the Federal Constitution, which recognizes the original right to occupy our territories, and insert the Temporal Framework, which would not recognize any new Indigenous territories. The senators' goal is to ensure that Indigenous peoples only have the right to claim certain land if they were already there when the Constitution was enacted on October 5, 1988.

Last year, the Brazilian Congress approved and enacted the Indigenous Genocide Law (Law 14,701/2023), which transformed the Temporal Framework and several crimes against Indigenous peoples into law, such as contesting demarcations, in addition to allowing outside invasions of Indigenous Lands to be considered in good faith. The approval is a clear reflection of the tug-of-war between the legislative and judicial branches of the brazilian government.

Now, the Indigenous Genocide Law is being discussed in a conciliation committee, created by Supreme Court Justice Gilmar Mendes. The justice has ignored the requests of the Indigenous movement, made through the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB), for the law to be suspended.

We were present at the first hearing of the conciliation committee, when we pointed out the insecurity that this legislation poses to us, and we demanded the suspension of the law, which has not been acted upon by the Court to date. We reiterate that we will not negotiate away any rights of Indigenous peoples, but rather will defend that these rights be guaranteed. We ask that the Supreme Court justices do not go back on what has already been decided by the Court: the Temporal Framework thesis is unconstitutional.

At the same time, members of the Brazilian Congress know that they cannot change the constitution through a bill, and so they are trying to approve PEC 48/2023 to firmly establish the Temporal Framework in Brazil.

For us, Indigenous peoples, who are the true guardians of the Brazilian biomes, this proposal represents violence against our bodies, territories, and rights. The Framework thesis ignores the violence and persecution that we have faced for over five hundred years, especially during the military dictatorship (1964-85). These persecutions made it impossible for many peoples to remain in their territories in 1988, just as today farmers, miners and land grabbers are trying to expel us and destroy our lands. 

From the North to the South of Brazil, the Temporal Framework has led to deaths in Indigenous Lands, as we are seeing with the Guarani Kaiowá people in Mato Grosso do Sul, with the Tapeba in Ceará, and the Pataxó in Bahia. In 2023, there were 208 cases involving the murder of Indigenous peoples, representing a 15 percent increase compared to 2022, not to mention other violations resulting from invasions and illegal exploration in our territories. 

If approved, the PEC of Death will legitimize all of this. It is important to emphasize that we are talking about an unconstitutional amendment proposal, since the fundamental rights of Indigenous peoples in the Federal Constitution of Brazil are enshrined in constitutional clauses, that is, they cannot be revoked or reversed by the Congress. APIB demands that PEC 48/2023 be withdrawn from the debate and archived immediately. The fundamental rights of Indigenous peoples must be guaranteed and not negotiated by Congress, the Supreme Court, or any other state body.

That is why we resist with the strength of the headdresses and the ancestry of the more than 300 indigenous peoples in the country. We are mobilizing leaders and grassroots organizations to occupy Brasília, all capitals, territories, and social networks. Allied jurists, senators, and congressional representatives are also joining the fight, but we need the support of the ministers of the executive branch, President Lula and public opinion.

We demand that Indigenous Lands be demarcated and protected and that this unconstitutional proposal be archived and remembered in history as the PEC of Death, regression, and agribusiness.

*Dinamam Tuxá, executive coordinator of the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB)

Feature articles express the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or WBO.