CPI of NGOs targets “ongueiro establishment” supported by mega foundations

In progress in the Senate since June of this year, the CPI of NGOs has tightened the siege, in recent sessions, against foreign groups that get involved in the Amazon issue by linking themselves to NGOs. The concern with national sovereignty is the focus of the discussions.

On Tuesday (29), the senators approved a request for the president of Funai, Joenia Wapichana, to provide clarification on the growing presence of visitors from abroad in lands under the responsibility of the foundation.

President of the CPI, senator Plínio Valério (PSDB-AM) suggested that Funai rolls out the door for foreigners and members of NGOs to enter indigenous areas, while imposing difficulties for other types of visitors.

“In order to penetrate these territories, Funai requires documents such as passports, visas, proof of vaccination and work plans – like what happened to the members of the CPI in a diligence –, thus exercising control over visitors. We request a list of foreign visitors formally authorized in these territories, with the information that led to the acceptance of their stay”, says Valério in the application.

The senators also approved hearings, still without a defined date, with a series of NGOs financed with foreign resources. Directors of the Sustainable Amazon Foundation, the Amazon Institute of Man and Environment (Imazon), the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (Ipam), the Almerinda Malaquias Foundation, the Vitória Amazônica Foundation and the Ecological Research Institute (IPE) will be heard. .

Also in testimony to the CPI, the anthropologist Edward Luz pointed to the presence of what he calls a “neo-governmental apparatus” in the Amazon. “This is the correct name of the monster they created and which operates here in Brazil. The NGO is just a nickname, a nice nickname. The correct name is apparatus. (…) The word ‘apparato’ is impressive, because it has two meanings in the Latin: one is where the word ‘appearance’ comes from; they appear to be something. (…) And an apparatus is also a set, it is a system. That’s why the correct name is ‘neo-governmental apparatus'”, he commented.

The anthropologist took advantage of his testimony at the CPI to give names to the bulls, indicating those who are the biggest financiers of what he calls the “ongueiro establishment” in Brazil: the Ford Foundation, the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation, the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD ), Survival International, as well as a number of cooperation agencies from governments in wealthy countries such as Canada, Germany and Norway. He also includes in this team some large international NGOs, such as the Rainforest Foundation and Greenpeace.

Luz claims that NGOs are more of a tool in the hands of these large groups than the main agents within the neo-governmental apparatus. Currently, according to him, these groups do not limit their sphere of lobbying to indigenous lands or environmental preservation, but have already found other veins: quilombola territories and areas of traditional peoples and communities.

“In the past [as ONGs] they were called indigenists. Today it is no longer possible to call them indigenists, because they are socio-environmental, indigenist, quilombolists and traditionalists. Today we already have three branches of territorial claim in Brazil: indigenous lands, quilombola territories and areas of traditional peoples and communities”, he explained.

Indigenous leaders warn of suspicious activities by NGOs in their communities

Questions about foreign interference in indigenous communities and the threat to national sovereignty have been constant in the CPI of NGOs.

In July, indigenous leader Luciene Kujãesage Kayabi stated that organizations claim to help indigenous communities, but, in practice, bring little tangible benefit to the lives of populations.

“Foreign NGOs believe that we have to live like 1500, like 523 years ago, and in a way that they can dominate us. This is the vision I have of foreign NGOs. can dominate our forests, dominate our ores, our riches…”, he said.

Kujãesage named two NGOs, the Instituto Socioambiental (ISA) and the Associação Terra Indígena do Xingu (Atix), which, according to him, promise benefits that are not delivered. He also expressed frustration that NGOs do not respect communities’ desire to be autonomous and self-sustaining.

In June, before the Senate Committee, the Yanomami representative Alberto Brazão Goes asked for greater transparency on the part of NGOs and recognition of indigenous rights.

Coming from the Maturacá community, in São Gabriel da Cachoeira (AM), Goes criticized the actions of NGOs, mainly ISA, claiming that the organizations’ initiatives often neglect the needs and desires of indigenous communities.

“We already know how to deal with our forest. We don’t need NGOs from abroad to say how the Yanomami are going to take care of our land, our forest, because we are the true anthropologists of our people”, he stated.

He also made reference to the history of the native peoples of North America, highlighting the irony of organizations from countries that have already exterminated their indigenous peoples wanting to dictate policies for Brazil.

Last week, Senator Marcio Bittar (União-AC) reinforced his concern about the activities of NGOs, recalling that international entities, including the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation, in partnership with several countries, finance NGOs that operate in the region. For him, the financing aims to stop the economic development of the Amazon under a facade of environmental concern.

Bittar presented data from Embrapa that indicate that 84% of the Amazon biome consists of areas destined for protected and preserved vegetation. The parliamentarian criticized the international funding of NGOs in Brazil and mentioned several entities, such as ISA and SOS Amazônia, questioning the significant amounts that these organizations receive from outside to influence Brazilian politics.

The senator also raised questions about the relationship between certain NGOs and public authorities, citing as an example the relationship between ISA and the current executive secretary of the Ministry of the Environment, João Paulo Capobianco.

Foreign interest in the Amazon is over 50 years old

The search by other countries to impose their interests in the Amazon has been going on for a long time. In July, in a statement to the CPI, former minister Aldo Rebelo recalled the Stockholm Conference of 1972 – the first UN conference on the environment –, in which Brazilian diplomacy put its foot down so that development was put on the agenda together with the environmental cause.

The stance faced resistance from other countries, but Brazil remained firm, and the conference agenda began to consider both aspects.

Araújo Castro, Brazilian ambassador at the time, accused rich countries of seeking a “freeze of world power”, suggesting that there was an attempt to keep global power relations unchanged through the environmental cause. For Rebelo, this dynamic persists: rich countries intuit that the sustainable development of the Amazon could make Brazil an intimidating power.

The former minister believes that most of the Brazilian people are in favor of “protecting the Amazon and using the resources of the Amazon in a rational, environmentally responsible and socially responsible way”. “Say one thing: if this Amazon was American, would it look like this? What if it was Chinese? What if it was German? For God’s sake! They are removing cities for coal, they remove cities, communities… Imagine if this belonged these people, of course, were being used in the service of their societies, their communities. And Brazil cannot allow itself to behave like that”, he commented.