By Express News Service
RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazil’s President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced on Thursday that Sônia Guajajara will head up a new Ministry of Indigenous Peoples, with a mandate to oversee policies ranging from land demarcation to health care.
Guajajara was elected to Congress in October. She is widely known as the leader of the main umbrella group for Brazil’s many Indigenous tribes and is a member of the Amazon Guajajara. This year she made Time Magazine’s annual list of the world’s 100 most influential people.
“This is more than a personal achievement,” Guajajara said. “It is a collective achievement of the Indigenous peoples, a historic moment of reparation in Brazil.” The creation of the ministry is “a confirmation of Lula’s commitment to us,” she said in a tweet.
Lula promised to create the Indigenous cabinet department during his presidential campaign. On January 1 he returns to power, having previously governed Brazil from 2003 to 2010.
No próximo domingo, após quatro anos de profundo retrocesso nas políticas sociais e de desenvolvimento do país, com incontáveis violações aos direitos humanos, principalmente dos nossos povos indígenas, passaremos a ter um governo de verdade, isto é, comprometido com o povo. pic.twitter.com/pbQsgucfl9
— Sonia Guajajara (@GuajajaraSonia) December 26, 2022
The appointment of Guajajara to such a post marks a 180-degree turn from Brazil’s current government. Outgoing president Jair Bolsonaro, defeated in October, is an opponent of Indigenous rights and land with a record of racist statements. In 1998, when he was still a fringe lawmaker, he spoke in Brazil’s Congress praising the US Cavalry for having “decimated its Indians” and regretted Brazil had not done the same.
Bolsonaro’s promises to develop the Amazon and his defanging of environmental law enforcement led to a surge of illegal loggers, miners and land robbers into Native territory in Brazil.
According to local Indigenous organizations, some 20,000 illegal gold miners now operate illegally in Yanomami tribal territory alone. Guajajara fiercely opposed attempts to legalise these policies, and that opposition was largely successful.
She also experienced the murders in 2019 and 2020 of five fellow tribe members who fought against illegal loggers.
RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazil’s President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced on Thursday that Sônia Guajajara will head up a new Ministry of Indigenous Peoples, with a mandate to oversee policies ranging from land demarcation to health care.
Guajajara was elected to Congress in October. She is widely known as the leader of the main umbrella group for Brazil’s many Indigenous tribes and is a member of the Amazon Guajajara. This year she made Time Magazine’s annual list of the world’s 100 most influential people.
“This is more than a personal achievement,” Guajajara said. “It is a collective achievement of the Indigenous peoples, a historic moment of reparation in Brazil.” The creation of the ministry is “a confirmation of Lula’s commitment to us,” she said in a tweet.
Lula promised to create the Indigenous cabinet department during his presidential campaign. On January 1 he returns to power, having previously governed Brazil from 2003 to 2010.
No próximo domingo, após quatro anos de profundo retrocesso nas políticas sociais e de desenvolvimento do país, com incontáveis violações aos direitos humanos, principalmente dos nossos povos indígenas, passaremos a ter um governo de verdade, isto é, comprometido com o povo. pic.twitter.com/pbQsgucfl9
— Sonia Guajajara (@GuajajaraSonia) December 26, 2022
The appointment of Guajajara to such a post marks a 180-degree turn from Brazil’s current government. Outgoing president Jair Bolsonaro, defeated in October, is an opponent of Indigenous rights and land with a record of racist statements. In 1998, when he was still a fringe lawmaker, he spoke in Brazil’s Congress praising the US Cavalry for having “decimated its Indians” and regretted Brazil had not done the same.
Bolsonaro’s promises to develop the Amazon and his defanging of environmental law enforcement led to a surge of illegal loggers, miners and land robbers into Native territory in Brazil.
According to local Indigenous organizations, some 20,000 illegal gold miners now operate illegally in Yanomami tribal territory alone. Guajajara fiercely opposed attempts to legalise these policies, and that opposition was largely successful.
She also experienced the murders in 2019 and 2020 of five fellow tribe members who fought against illegal loggers.
