Costa announces reinforcement of protection for indigenous people within the deadline given by the STF

The government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) announced this Tuesday (9) that it will create a permanent structure in Roraima to reinforce the protection of indigenous people, on the same day that the deadline given by Minister Luís Roberto Barroso, of the Supreme Court, ended. Federal Court (STF), to present a new plan to remove miners from protected lands.

According to the Minister of the Civil House, Rui Costa, the structure will be coordinated by the federal government and aims to combat miners and loggers considered by the government to be illegal, in addition to providing assistance to Venezuelans who enter Brazil through the state. The investment of R$1.2 billion through extraordinary credit will be directed towards the establishment and maintenance of this new structure.

Rui Costa highlighted the importance of an “integrated, federal government governance space”, guaranteeing a permanent response to local issues. The structure, under the coordination of the Civil House, will have an emphasis on the security of the region, aiming at structuring actions as opposed to emergency measures.

“We are going to migrate from a set of emergency actions that were carried out for a change of level in 2024, to structuring actions, including in the area of ​​control of the public security territory. I am referring to migrating from sporadic programmed police actions and police raids to a permanent presence of the Armed Forces and the Federal Police. That is why we will, in 30 days, together with the Ministry of Defense and the Federal Police, restructure the security occupation in the region”, he stated shortly after a ministerial meeting called by Lula in the morning.

The announcement is part of the federal government’s response to the Federal Supreme Court (STF). In November 2023, Barroso gave the Executive a deadline of 60 days to present a new plan for the removal of invaders from seven Indigenous Lands within 12 months, a deadline that ended this Tuesday.

The Minister of the Civil House also highlighted the actions to combat the crime of occupation of indigenous lands and illegal mining carried out in 2023, revealing that more than R$600 million were seized in around 400 operations. There was the destruction of dozens of infrastructures used for these crimes, such as machinery, planes, vehicles and transport and ferries.