Senate brakes time frame and STF must decide on the topic

The bill that creates a timeframe for the demarcation of indigenous lands in Brazil moved quickly through the Chamber of Deputies, but should slow down in the Senate. Therefore, the Federal Supreme Court (STF) may resume on Wednesday (7) the judgment already started on the subject.

The President of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), was with the Minister of Indigenous Peoples, Sonia Guajajara, before the vote in the Chamber on Tuesday (30) and, in a press conference after the meeting, signaled that the in the House will follow the normal rite, with “caution” and “prudence”.

“What I said about caution, about prudence, is to submit it to the commission, before submitting it to the plenary. Allowing anyone who wants to debate this issue to have time in the Senate for this debate as well,” said Pacheco after the meeting with the minister.

The so-called time frame is a bill that regulates the constitutional text. He interprets that the lands that indigenous peoples “traditionally occupy” are those they were in at the time of the promulgation of the 1988 Constitution. Critics of the proposal say that the determination is arbitrary and that other factors must be taken into account to demarcate lands indigenous.

On her Twitter account, Sonia Guajajara said that Pacheco’s decision is “an important achievement for indigenous rights”. “In a meeting, the president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco, committed to reviewing the constitutionality of PL 490 and conducting the procedure with proper listening to indigenous peoples, listening to both sides and the commissions”, highlighted the Minister of Indigenous Peoples.

FPA hopes that judgment in the STF will be suspended

The Agricultural Parliamentary Front (FPA) was the main articulator of the approval of the bill in the Chamber, which took place last week on an urgent basis. The deputies’ objective was to try to prevent the STF from continuing the judgment on the subject.

The rapporteur for the time frame in the Chamber, deputy Arthur Oliveira Maia (União-BA), said he hoped that the STF would paralyze the judgment on the subject. For him, the approval of the project by the Chamber of Deputies will guarantee legal security for rural landowners, including small farmers. “The country cannot live in a limbo of insecurity”, said Maia, during the session that approved the bill for the time frame.

Senator Tereza Cristina (PP-MS) also said she believed in the possibility of the STF removing the issue from the agenda. “Congress is doing its part, which is to vote on such an important project that has been on hold for over 16 years, I think the STF has the possibility of withdrawing it from the agenda and waiting for Congress to decide. It is a matter that Congress needs to decide, much more than the STF,” said the former Minister of Agriculture in the Bolsonaro government in an interview with Rádio Itatiaia.

Agribusiness bench will seek dialogue with Pacheco

With an interest in the processing of the matter, the FPA should support the presentation of an urgent request in the Senate for the bill of the temporal framework, as happened in the Chamber. Of the 81 senators who make up the Senate, 47 are linked to the FPA in this legislature.

In the face of Pacheco’s signal, Tereza Cristina, political coordinator of the FPA in the Senate, said that the work had already started on Wednesday, after the vote in the Chamber. “We now have work to do with our fellow senators, work with President Rodrigo Pacheco to guide [o projeto] on an emergency basis”, said the senator.

In case Pacheco’s decision is not reversed, the FPA bench is also working on articulating the matter for voting in the committees, taking information about the project to the senators.

Ciro Nogueira wants the project to be analyzed on an urgent basis

The bill for the time frame reached the Senate on Thursday (1st), where it will be processed as PL 2,903/2023. According to the dispatch given by President Pacheco, the project should be analyzed by the Agriculture and Agrarian Reform (CRA) and Constitution, Justice and Citizenship (CCJ) commissions. At CRA, the chairman of the committee, Senator Soraya Thronicke (União-MS) took on the role of rapporteur for the matter.

Senator Ciro Nogueira (PP-PI) submitted a request for the project to be processed on an urgent basis. The intention is for the vote on the time frame to be made directly in the plenary of the House, without going through the committees, as President Pacheco wants.

27 signatures of senators are needed for the urgency to be ruled. Nogueira was at least 16 on Monday night (5). The urgency vote must be symbolic, that is, it will not be possible to verify who voted against and in favor of accelerating the procedure.

Senators favorable to the timeframe differ on accelerating processing

Senator Zequinha Marinho (PL-PA), in favor of the time frame, told the Senate Agency that if the government wants to make an indigenous land, it should “buy it and not take it”.

Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ) argued that the time frame has a constitutional basis. The parliamentarian stated that the indigenous people need to have full autonomy even to decide whether they want to explore the ores of their lands.

Senator Wellington Fagundes (PL-MT), leader of the “Vanguarda” parliamentary bloc, defended the approval of the time frame as a way of providing legal security for the country. For the senator, the project will be approved in the Senate based on “rationality”. He said that Brazil has more parks and indigenous reserves than any other country in the world. “We need to carry out sustainable development and produce food, respecting the environment and avoiding conflicts”, declared Fagundes.

Although he defends the temporal framework, senator Plinio Valério (PSDB-AM) told the People’s Gazette that it should not support the urgent request that must be proposed by the FPA. “It is also a way of showing the population that matters like this are discussed by the Legislative Power. Not by the Judiciary. We will focus on the text approved by the Chamber of Deputies without any fuss, going through the House Committees and, finally, voting in the Plenary. This House cannot escape this debate”, commented Valério.

Parliamentarians opposed to the time frame defend broad debate

Among the parliamentarians opposed to the thesis of the temporal framework is Senator Randolfe Rodrigues (non-AP party), leader of the government in Congress. He said the timeframe project is an attack on indigenous peoples’ rights. On Twitter, Rodrigues stated that the government base in the Senate will fight to reverse “this setback”. In his opinion, it is important to debate the matter widely in the committees.

Senator Leila Barros (PDT-DF) also defended that the project be discussed in depth in commissions with relevant themes.

Senator Confúcio Moura (MDB-RO) announced his vote against the project and in favor of the indigenous people. According to the parliamentarian, it is a question of justice with the original peoples.

Humberto Costa (PT-PE) said he hoped the project would not even be on the agenda, since the Federal Supreme Court (STF) is debating the matter.

PSOL and Rede try to suspend the processing of the time frame in the Senate

On Friday (2), the PSOL-Rede Federation delivered a letter to the President of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco, requesting the suspension of the processing of the bill for the time frame. “This project is a huge attack on Indigenous Peoples, a serious violation of Human Rights, in addition to being completely unconstitutional,” said Deputy Talíria Petrone (Psol-RJ) on her social networks.

The PSOL bench in the Chamber said, in a note released on the party’s website, that it understands that the text of the bill would be unconstitutional. “Brazil is indigenous land and demarcation is democracy,” said deputy Celia Xakriabá (PSOL), coordinator of the Parliamentary Front in Defense of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

PSOL has no senators elected in this legislature. Rede Sustentabilidade elected Senator Randolfe Rodrigues in 2019, with a mandate until 2027. But he announced two weeks ago that he should leave the party, without disclosing which acronym he intends to migrate to.

STF will resume judgment on the time frame on June 7

The discussion on the timeframe in the National Congress takes place on the eve of the resumption of the trial in the STF, scheduled for next Wednesday, June 7th. The judgment has general repercussions, that is, the decision of this judgment becomes valid for all cases of demarcation of indigenous lands in Brazil.

So far, two ministers have already voted on the case and the score is tied. Minister Edson Fachin, the case’s rapporteur, voted against the thesis of the temporal framework, and Minister Nunes Marques, voted in favor.

The trial at the STF, which deals with Extraordinary Appeal (RE) 1,017,365, was filed in 2016. Since then, the trial has been postponed seven times. The last time took place in June 2022 by “consensus between ministers”, after a request for visas granted to Minister Alexandre de Moraes in 2021.

Case on trial at the STF originated from a conflict in the state of Santa Catarina

The case under discussion in the STF deals with the Indigenous Land Ibirama La Klãnõ, inhabited by the Guarani, Guarani Mbya, Guarani Ñandeva, Kaingang and Xokleng peoples, whose area is between the municipalities of Doutor Pedrinho, Itaiópolis, José Boiteux and Vitor Meireles in the northern plateau of Santa Catarina.

In the process being judged by the STF, the state of Santa Catarina requires the repossession of part of the Sassafrás State Ecological Reserve, in the municipality of Itaiópolis. In 2009, around 100 indigenous people invaded part of the reserve, which is owned by the Santa Catarina Institute of the Environment (IMA-SC).

At the time, the then Santa Catarina Environmental Foundation (FATMA) sought to recover the area through a repossession action against the National Indian Foundation (Funai), which was upheld. However, the indigenist body filed an appeal in which it alleges that the judgment published by the Federal Regional Court of the 4th Region (TRF-4) “violated article 231 of the Constitution”, arguing that the Magna Carta “adopted the theory of indigenation and, therefore, the relationship established between the land and the Indian is original and does not depend on title or formal recognition”.

The state of Santa Catarina works for the application of the timeframe thesis in the case. According to this interpretation, indigenous peoples can only claim lands where they were already on October 5, 1988, when the Federal Constitution was enacted.

Indigenous organizations protest against the time frame

Indigenous people are mobilized in protests against the time frame. The acts take place between this Monday (5) and Thursday (8). In a note released after the approval of the time frame bill in the Chamber of Deputies, the Articulação dos Povos Indígenas do Brasil (Apib) stated that indigenous peoples will remain camped in Brasília and that they will also promote mobilizations against the time frame in the five regions from the country.

Last Tuesday (30), the day of the vote on the bill for the time frame in the Chamber of Deputies, Guarani indigenous people blocked the Bandeirantes highway, in the north zone of São Paulo, demonstrating against the approval of the matter. There was also a protest in Brasilia, at the Esplanada dos Ministérios.

Protests were also registered in cities like Chapecó, in the west of Santa Catarina, where a group of indigenous people from Toldo Chimbangue blocked a section of the SC-484 highway, which connects the municipality of Paial to SC-283. In Mato Grosso do Sul, a stretch of the BR-463 highway, in Ponta Porã, and the Ring Road in Dourados was blocked by indigenous people.