Brazil: indigenous people raise their roadblock

Dozens of indigenous people who have blocked a strategic road in northern Brazil for ten days announced Thursday to AFP the lifting of the dam, after a court decision demanding a response from the government to their demands.

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The indigenous people of the Kayapo Mekranoti people, who live in the northern state of Para, are calling for more help from the public authorities against the coronavirus and an end to deforestation and gold panning on their land. Armed with sticks, arrows and machetes, wearing traditional feathered headdresses and body paintings, on August 17 they installed a roadblock on the BR-163 road, very important for the transport of goods, especially soybeans, one of the main export products of Brazil.

The roadblock of tires and tree trunks had been temporarily lifted several times, a gesture described as " humanitarian " by the demonstrators, who had let truck drivers pass in a long line of several kilometers.

They finally decided to suspend the blockade for ten days, to give time to the Funai, the government body in charge of indigenous affairs, to respond to their demands. “ The judge gave Funai 10 days to respond. If they don't, they will have to pay a fine of 10,000 reais (around 1,500 euros) per day, ”one of the movement's leaders, Mudjere Kayapo, told AFP. " But if we have to, we will come back to block the road again, " he added.

Federal judge Sandra Maria Correia da Silva ordered the dam to be lifted last week, citing the " disturbances " caused to " the regional economy " and to " users of this road ". The natives initially decided to defy this order, but ended up leaving the scene after a conciliation hearing on Wednesday.

The Kayapo Mekragnoti - a subgroup of the Kayapo ethnic group of the famous cacique at the labial plateau Raoni, tireless defender of the indigenous cause - are asking the government of Jair Bolsonaro for financial compensation for the damage inflicted on their environment by the construction of the BR-163. They also demand that Brasilia fight against illegal gold panning, deforestation and the coronavirus, which has greatly affected the indigenous tribes.

In Brazil, the second country most affected by the pandemic after the United States, the Covid-19 has infected more than 28,000 indigenous people and killed 736 of them, according to the results of the APIB, the Brazilian Association of Indigenous Peoples .