the president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, He insisted once more this Friday that the indigenous “every time” are “more equal” than the whites, upon receiving the medal for indigenist merit.
With a feathered headdress with which he declared to feel “very happy”, he reiterated that “we are exactly the same”. “We all came to earth by the grace of God. We are becoming more equal”, he maintained with an indigenous girl in her arms, upon receiving the Medal of Indigenous Merit, created in 1972 by the dictatorship that ruled the country at the time.
Bolsonaro defended that “always” he has sought to make the indigenous people feel “like us” and assured that they are now more integrated into Brazilian society, according to the G1 news portal.
Bolsonaro’s election to receive the indigenous merit medal did not sit well with the entities and associations that represent indigenous peoples.
According to the Ministry of Justice, which awarded this decoration to the leader of the extreme right, it is a “recognition of his important services, of an altruistic nature, related to the well-being, protection and defense of indigenous communities.”
The award is reserved for people who stand out for their work to protect and promote Brazilian indigenous peoples, but Bolsonaro is criticized for his actions in relation to these citizens.
Last year, the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB) denounced Bolsonaro before the International Criminal Court (ICC) for encouraging the invasion of indigenous lands by miners. In 2020, Bolsonaro received criticism for saying that “increasingly, the Indian is a human being just like us.”
This same year, when sanctioning the budgets for 2022, the president cut the funds destined for the protection and promotion of indigenous peoples that had been previously approved by the Brazilian Congress. Bolsonaro is also once morest the demarcation of new indigenous lands and his government has defended the release of mining in already demarcated areas.
mining on indigenous lands
“The only thing we want is for you to do on your land what we do on ours”, because “we are brothers, we are friends, and we are not different”, he pointed out in a clear reference to a project promoted by his government to liberate the exploitation of mineral and forest resources in indigenous reserves.
The decoration was imposed on him at a time when the Government is pressuring Congress to accelerate the discussion of this project, which is resisted by the vast majority of indigenous peoples, who fear the ecological impact that the release of productive activities that are currently prohibited by law in their reservations.
In recent weeks, Bolsonaro has used, among other arguments, that indigenous lands are rich in potassium and other minerals needed to produce fertilizers, which are becoming scarce due to the economic sanctions imposed on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.
Bolsonaro assumed power in January 2019 and, since then, as he had promised in his campaign, he has not recognized “a millimeter” of new indigenous lands and encouraged artisanal mining, mostly illegal and the source of violent conflicts. and invasions of reserves.
Likewise, it has progressively reduced the budgets for the protection of indigenous peoples, as has happened with those related to the environment and protected areas.
Faced with these policies, the Articulation of the Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (Apib), one of the largest groups representing Brazilian ethnic groups, presented last year an accusation of genocide once morest the head of state before the International Criminal Court.
