Time frame: Parties ask the STF to validate the law – 12/28/2023 – Daily

The PL (Liberal Party), the PP (Progressive Party) and the Republicans filed a request with the STF (Supreme Federal Court), this Thursday (28), to validate the law that establishes the thesis of the time frame for land demarcation indigenous people.

The rule was promulgated this Thursday by the president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), after parliament overturned President Lula’s (PT) vetoes on the project.

The text was approved by the Legislature after articulation by the ruralist bench in response to the decision of the STF, which judged unconstitutional the thesis that territories must be demarcated considering indigenous occupation in 1988, the date of promulgation of the Constitution.

Constitutionality Declaratory Action (ADC) 87 was distributed to minister Gilmar Mendes. The parties argue that the law was born in the midst of a major political dispute.

The captions ask the Supreme Court to declare the constitutionality of the rule, especially sections that had been vetoed by the President of the Republic and were subsequently maintained by Congress.

According to the acronyms, presidential vetoes only reveal political disagreements between the Planalto and the National Congress.

They also state that, in accordance with the constitutional rule that allows vetoes to be overturned, the political decision of Congress must prevail over the position of the President of the Republic.

The vote in Congress was accompanied by protests from the indigenous movement against the landmark. There was an agreement between the government and the ruralist caucus so that the overturn of the veto would be partial, with the maintenance of three fences.

One of these vetoes was the section that approved contact with isolated peoples to “provide medical assistance or to mediate state action of public benefit”.

In another controversial point vetoed by Lula, the proposal opened a loophole for demarcated lands to be taken back by the Union, “due to changes in the community’s cultural traits or other factors caused by the passage of time.”

The device that would allow the planting of transgenics in the territories also remained prohibited.

The time frame thesis is defended by ruralists, who claim that the criterion would serve to resolve land disputes and provide legal and economic security for indigenous people and landowners.

Indigenous people, NGOs and activists criticize the thesis. For them, the indigenous people’s right to land predates the Brazilian State and, therefore, cannot be restricted to a specific point in time.

After the vote in Congress, the Minister of Indigenous Peoples, Sônia Guajajara, spoke criticizing the measure and said that the federal government could file a request for the STF to analyze the case. Thus, there was already a tendency for the matter to be taken to court.

The strategy for this, however, was under analysis. Lula’s allies feared that he would suffer political wear and tear if the AGU itself appealed to the Supreme Court, because it could mean an affront by the president himself to Congress and the ruralist caucus, the most powerful of the Houses today.