Secretary of Tarcísio defends time frame – 05/29/2023 – Panel

The Secretary of Justice and Citizenship of the State of São Paulo, Fábio Prieto, said in a statement sent to Governor Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans) that the end of the time frame for the demarcation of indigenous lands will cause “rupture of the concept of national territory”, with “unforeseen consequences for the country”.

“The judgment could affect the entire national territory, including, or mainly, private urban property, in the state of São Paulo and throughout the country”, says the secretary, in a letter to Tarcísio sent on May 19.

The timeframe, defended by ruralists, determines that a condition for the demarcation of indigenous lands is that they were occupied on the date of promulgation of the Constitution, in 1988.

Defenders of indigenous rights, on the other hand, claim that this thesis limits the creation of reserves too much, by excluding places occupied in an ancestral way by original peoples. A lawsuit on the subject at the STF (Federal Supreme Court) is expected to go to trial on June 7.

At the same time, the ruralist caucus managed to approve last week in the Chamber the urgency of a project establishing the framework, against the will of the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples and a large part of the left that supports the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) government.

Former judge of the Federal Regional Court of the 3rd Region, Prieto says he analyzed several cases involving the landmark.

He mentions in the document to the governor urban territories such as Guarulhos, Itaquaquecetuba, Barueri, São Miguel Paulista, Santo André and Pinheiros, which in the past were indigenous settlements and could in theory be affected if the landmark is changed.

“No land – urban or rural – will be safe from the allegation that, one day, centuries ago, it will have been occupied by indigenous communities and, therefore, the property will no longer belong to Brazilians, but to the Union that must serve them”, argue.

The secretary also says that it is a mistake to attribute the issue to a dichotomy between “alleged malicious rural producers and indigenous communities”.

He also makes it clear which side the Tarcísio government is on in the discussion. “Our government respects, admires and supports the rural productive sector. In the contradiction of the political process, we know that not all currents share the same sincere loyalty to the ruralist cause”, he says.

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