Barroso gives Lula government 60 days to present plan against invasion of indigenous lands

The president of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), minister Luís Roberto Barroso, ordered this Thursday (9) that the federal government present within 60 days a new plan for the disintrusion of Indigenous Lands, that is, the removal of non-indigenous occupants of these areas. The minister demanded the preparation of the plan by the Ministries of Justice, Indigenous Peoples and Defense. The General Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic must coordinate the action.

“For disintrusion to be effective and ensure land ownership for the indigenous community, it is necessary to structure a government intervention that also focuses on medium and long-term measures, preventing invaders from returning to the lands. Therefore, it is not enough to predict how invaders will be removed, it is necessary to establish how deintrusion will be guaranteed in the medium and long term”, wrote Barroso.

The decision took place within the scope of the Claim of Non-compliance with Fundamental Precepts (ADPF) 709, which has among its proponents the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (Apib) and six political parties. Barroso defended that an “effective plan must include surveillance actions to monitor and protect indigenous lands”.

The minister stated that it is necessary to “establish social measures for those who are being removed from these lands, such as resettlement or inclusion in social benefits”, otherwise “these groups will return to the territory that was vacated or will seek new land for occupation.”

“For the protection of indigenous communities to be lasting, a broader public policy is necessary, which has as its first phase the disintrusion process, but which establishes complementary measures to ensure that those who were removed do not need to return to the location”, pointed.

The minister also demanded that the government take action to guarantee food security for the Yanomami. “It is essential that the Yanomami regain the autonomy of their food security and are no longer dependent on periodic food baskets from the Federal Government,” he highlighted. In September, Apib reported that mining alerts in Yanomami land were interrupted and food baskets intended for humanitarian aid were not being delivered or were being delivered late, which ended up causing food loss.

The minister determined that the government policy must contain: the specific objectives for each indigenous land, the necessary and available resources (physical, financial and human), details of the activities that will be carried out and their schedule; the expected impacts of the intervention; the indicators, with inputs, products, results, impacts, baseline value and collection frequency, as well as the bodies responsible for data collection and analysis; the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to the effectiveness of the planned measures.

Barroso also decided that, in case of lack of available resources, the Executive Branch must evaluate the opening of extraordinary credit to complete the deintrusions of the 7 Indigenous Lands within a maximum period of 12 months. Furthermore, the minister ordered the Ministry of Health to present, within 90 days, a new action plan to improve the Indigenous Health Care Subsystem (SasiSUS) within 12 months.