“CPI is necessary to open the black box of NGOs in the Amazon”

In the midst of the humanitarian crisis that affects the Yanomamis and the denunciations about the actions of NGOs in the Amazon, the Amazonian senator Plínio Valério (PSDB-AM) is trying again to promote the installation of a Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI) in the Senate to investigate the actions of non-governmental organizations in the Amazon region. The purpose of the CPI, according to the senator, is to open the “black box” of these NGOs, something he has been trying to do since 2019, when he submitted the first request for installation.

In the last legislature, Valério obtained the minimum number of signatures for the CPI, but the request was only read in the Plenary and the commission was not installed. With the end of the previous legislature, the request was shelved and it will be necessary to follow the entire procedure again for the creation of the CPI, which has already been done by the parliamentarian. The new request should be submitted in the next few days, according to Valério.

>> Be part of the Life and Citizenship channel on Telegram

This will not be the first time that the intention is to investigate the performance of Brazilian NGOs. In 2007, a CPI was installed in the Senate to investigate financial transfers that occurred in the first term of the Lula government (between 2003 and 2006) to entities linked to the federal government and the Workers’ Party (PT).

Valério guarantees that there is no lack of complaints about irregularities in organizations linked to the federal government in previous PT administrations. In 2011, the Federal Court of Accounts (TCU) admitted the difficulty of overseeing public resources allocated to NGOs due to the lack of accountability by the entities.

In 2019, when he just took over the Ministry of Health, former minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta denounced that NGOs run by drug traffickers who won bids in the PT government used resources destined to serve indigenous areas in the Amazon through SUS to transport, in addition to medicine, all kinds of drugs.

Check out the exclusive interview of the Amazonian senator to People’s Gazette on attempts to investigate NGOs and the indigenous issue in the Amazon:

Why do you intend to open the CPI of NGOs and how is the progress of this installation?

Plínio Valerio: The CPI of NGOs has always been necessary and is essential to open this “black box” that involves NGOs, mainly in the Amazon.

We want to open the CPI, because a lot of money is made using the name of the Amazon and it has become clear, now with the Yanomami crisis, that there are NGOs making money at the expense of the misery of the Yanomami. And this is just one example. There are also NGOs that received 400 million in one year, and the Amazon Fund, which finances these people, does not ask for accountability.

As for the installation of the CPI, we had to start over, because the legislature ended and [o pedido] has been archived. So, I’m already collecting new signatures and I won’t have any difficulties. I believe I should file a new application this week.

Are there complaints about the activities of these NGOs?

Plínio Valerio: We have the Amazon Fund report, which financed some NGOs – R$ 17 million, R$ 14 million, R$ 54 million… – and the organizations did not account for these amounts. So, we can start with the Amazon Fund and the complaint made by the former Minister of Health in the Bolsonaro government, when he reported that the previous government, the PT, had spent more than R$ 1.4 billion with three NGOs.

There are also TCU reports. Minister Vital do Rêgo himself has already audited 20/22 NGO agreements, and 18 of them have problems, that is, they spend 85% of the money they raise between them. So there’s a lot to analyze. Apart from what we know we have, hear about it, exist and see it, but we can’t prove it because we can’t get there.

In your opinion, do NGOs hinder rather than collaborate in the development of villages?

Pliny Valerio: NGOs get in the way much more. The Instituto Socioambiental (ISA) itself took care of the Alto Rio Negro region, which is the richest region on the planet, and not just the richest in Brazil. And there only entered who the ISA allowed.

The institute even entered into an agreement with Funai to carry out the Funai service. In other words, Funai, under the PT government, outsourced its work to ISA, which became an arm to attack people. I have contact with the Baniwa (an indigenous group that lives on the border of Brazil with Colombia and Venezuela), who are revolted by the ISA. And in my conception, I am absolutely sure that they [ONGs] they get in the way.

Are there foreign influences in the performance of these NGOs? In your opinion, is this good or bad?

Plínio Valerio: There is the action of large international funds, such as the Rockefeller Empire, the British, George Soros, among others. They raise money, and it’s not just in Brazil that they manipulate. We are being victims of this. They do what they want and it’s not just about the environment. They manipulate the political question in the truest sense of the term and that is very bad, because today, with the PT government, the State is again equipped, and Funai will play the role it played in the PT.

It’s total chaos. You see now, for example, this hypocrisy: there is a chief arrested [o líder indígena e apoiador de Jair Bolsonaro, José Acácio Serere Xavante, que foi preso em dezembro após protestar contra a vitória de Lula nas eleições] and no one spoke for the chief. Now, he’s going to mess with an Indian in his village, where the NGOs are claiming to protect. It’s a lot of hypocrisy from those who don’t know, from those who don’t value man. You cannot preserve the Amazon without preserving human beings.

A Unicef ​​report showed that the Amazon is the worst place on the planet for children to live, and that there are nine million households that do not have money to buy a basic food basket. It is a sad scenario with NGOs raising millions. That in itself says it all.

Regarding the humanitarian crisis of the Yanomami, in your opinion, what happened and what can be done to alleviate it?

Plínio Valerio: This question of the Yanomami is sensitive, but if we analyze it from the other side, it can be seen in a cruel way. There the Yanomami live isolated, without producing, and only two NGOs have access. They are Indians who live like these NGO people want them to live: isolated and without equipment to produce and plant. That’s why they live depending on help.

They don’t plant cassava, they don’t have maize and they don’t have much water. So it’s hard to talk about the Yanomami without seeming like we don’t care. Of course we are aware. However, they have been malnourished for a long time. And this is also the fault of those who earn money and are there to watch and don’t. So this question comes up: to what extent is it worth these NGOs to take care of, dominate and isolate the indigenous people?

As a representative of the Amazon, how do you evaluate the indigenist policy in the country and what should be improved?

Plínio Valerio: What we need to improve is to value and respect what the Indian wants. There are tribes that don’t want the presence of white people and there are tribes that want to live in isolation. You have to respect that. But there are tribes that want to take advantage of hospitals, schools, internet and transport.

I’ll have to give an example of the Baniwa, who live in the Upper Rio Negro region. We managed, in the last government, to put internet [na aldeia dessa etnia] and it was glory to them. We also guarantee a boat with a motor to harvest chestnuts.

And as another example, from the terrines, we got an aluminum canoe with a motor for families to harvest chestnuts. They harvested by oar and canoe. Ask the Indian if he prefers a boat with a motor or wants to row to pick chestnuts?

The Indians want cooperatives to exploit their ore, to get out of the white man’s pocket. There are Indians who say they are ashamed to ask for help. Those who want to live in isolation should live, but those who don’t, don’t need guardianship. And I know many Indians who no longer want to be tutored.

Other side

The report opened space for the Socio-environmental Institute to comment on the denouncements made by the senator. In a note, ISA informed that it does not have the authority to grant authorization for entry into indigenous villages.

See the note in full:

“It is not the responsibility of ISA or any civil society organization to grant authorization to enter indigenous lands. The attempts by the parliamentarian to defame civil society organizations that work in defense of indigenous rights are not new and have already been denied by the indigenous organizations themselves. The senator seeks to disqualify the performance of indigenous institutions and leaders to legitimize the interest of business groups in these territories. He also demonstrates his total lack of knowledge about the right to autonomy and self-determination of indigenous peoples, who are free to make decisions about their development models .”