“Stop killing us”, demands indigenous leader in the Amazon Dialogues

Amazon Summit

Event will produce proposals for presentation at the Belém Summit

The development model that prevails in the Amazon region was heavily criticized at the opening ceremony of the Amazon Dialogues, in Belém. “The growth of the country and of humanity cannot be above life”defended this Friday (4) the president of the Federation of Indigenous Peoples of Pará, Concita Sompre.

The event brings together entities and civil society leaders with the objective of producing proposals to be presented to the heads of state of the Amazon Summit, from August 7th to 9th, also in Belém.

“Indigenous peoples have suffered the violence of agribusiness, indigenous peoples have suffered the violence of large mining companies, indigenous peoples have suffered the invasion of territories for cattle raising”

denounced Concita.

The indigenous woman highlighted that she lives in a territory “disrupted by large projects: highway, power transmission line, railroad and transmission line of the equatorial line. We, who owned space, have now become space invaders.”

Concita Sompre called for a review of the development model that prevails in the region. “We no longer accept that the ore from our land enriches countries outside Brazil, leaving hunger and misery in our territories. Stop killing us,” she denounced.

Speaking in the Kayapo language, Raoni Metuktire, an internationally recognized leader, recalled that climate change threatens the entire world and stated that he will continue asking President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to demarcate indigenous lands that have not yet been demarcated. “The white man arrived, he was our enemy and until today he is our enemy. Few people help us, most are against us, indigenous people”, added Raoni.

Concrete Proposals

“We cannot leave here without concrete proposals. We need to leave Belém with commitments assumed, with commitments discussed collectively and assumed by the presidents of the countries”, said the representative of the Articulação dos Povos Indígenas do Brasil (Apib), Kleber Karipuna, about what he believes to be the mission of social movements in the Amazonian Dialogues .

“The era of deforestation must end. We are about to reach the moment when the Amazon rainforest itself will not manage to regenerate by the force of nature. That point of no return, we need to avoid.”

highlighted Kleber.

In addition to Brazilian social movements, entities and organizations from Bolivia, Colombia, Guyana, Peru and Ecuador, Venezuela and Suriname should participate in the meeting. Venezuelan immigrant Ana Felicien, from the Venezuelan Institute of Scientific Investigations and the Pueblo a Pueblo Movement, highlighted that the meeting in Belém will serve to give visibility to popular movements in her country “in a context of the worst crisis and most challenging historical conjuncture” in Venezuela .

“We believe that this space of the Amazonian Dialogues will allow a reading and ‘visibility’ of our struggles and pains and that we will be able to reinforce this dialogue and this understanding that a fairer and healthier world is possible”

highlighted.

Time frame

The Law Project (PL 490/07), which institutes the Temporal Framework thesis in Brazil, was also highly criticized at the opening of the Amazon Diálogos. For the representative of the Articulação dos Povos Indígenas do Brasil, Kleber Karipuna, there is no time frame “since we were living here long before”.

Approved in May in the Chamber of Deputies, the bill is currently being discussed in the Senate. The text defines that indigenous peoples can only demand the demarcation of the lands they occupied at the time of the enactment of the 1988 Constitution.

*With information from Agência Brasil

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