Urgent petition:
Stop Brazil's Genocide
Indigenous people protesting in Brasilia, April 2019. © Sarah Shenker/Survival
President Jair Bolsonaro has ‘declared war’ on Brazil’s indigenous peoples.
He has:
- encouraged farmers and ranchers to burn the Amazon, home to 1 million indigenous people, with impunity.
- tried to take the government’s indigenous affairs department, FUNAI, away from the Ministry of Justice and place it under the control of Minister Damares Alves, an evangelical preacher under investigation for inciting racial hatred against indigenous peoples
- tried to take the responsibility to map out indigenous territories away from FUNAI and give it to the Agriculture Ministry which is run by anti-indigenous politicians of the agribusiness lobby
- issued decrees to make it harder to protect indigenous territories, and to ‘monitor’ indigenous peoples’ allies
- through his racist rhetoric, emboldened invaders to steal indigenous land and attack communities
- and more…
These moves spell disaster for indigenous peoples nationwide. Land theft, violence and diseases brought by outsiders, including coronavirus, could wipe out dozens of uncontacted tribes.
Across the country, indigenous territories are being invaded, and the rainforests are being burned at an unprecedented rate.
But indigenous peoples are fighting back. They won’t let anyone steal their land, because without it they can’t survive.
They’re asking for your help. Please sign and share.
