Bolsonaro uses Ukraine as a pretext to promote a controversial legal change on indigenous lands

The musician Caetano Veloso, during the protest concert he led this Wednesday before Congress, in Brasilia.SERGIO LIMA (AFP)

The connection between the Russian invasion of Ukraine and indigenous lands in Brazil is much more tenuous than President Jair Bolsonaro would like.

With the false argument that the answer to the feared shortage of fertilizers due to the Ukrainian war lies in the indigenous reserves, the Brazilian president managed this Wednesday night for the Chamber to take a first step to approve a controversial bill that intends to raise the veto to mining activities on those lands.

While his lordships voted, on the esplanade before Congress thousands of people listened to music and speeches.

The singer Caetano Veloso was leading a concert to convince parliamentarians to reject legislative projects that are harmful to the environment and indigenous people.

The deputies won this time the pulse of Caetano Veloso, the main symbol of

and one of the artists most loved by the Brazilian left.

The lower house called the session to coincide with the protest event.

He approved with great ease (279 yeses, 108 nos) to process the controversial project by urgent means.

In other words, it could go directly to the plenary session, without going through a committee.

Right now the indigenous lands, which make up 12% of the Brazilian territory, are legally untouchable, they cannot be exploited commercially.

“This crisis between Ukraine and Russia is a good opportunity for us.

We have a bill in Congress that will allow us to exploit these indigenous lands,” Bolsonaro said in an interview on Monday.

For environmentalists, this rule is a wink from the extreme right to the

, the thousands of Brazilians who illegally extract gold and other minerals on indigenous lands, causing serious damage to the health of the natives and the environment.

This clandestine activity is no longer artisanal, it is now perpetrated on a large scale.

A woman from the Brazilian indigenous movement, this Thursday, with her son at the event led by Caetano Veloso. Joédson Alves (EFE)

Bolsonaro has found in the war in Ukraine the pretext for the controversial law to start the parliamentary process.

Russia, the main supplier of fertilizers to Brazil, suspended exports a few days ago, causing shortages and runaway prices.

"The president has used the argument that there will be a lack of potassium, saying that there are (potassium reserves) on indigenous lands and that is why it is necessary to authorize the exploitation of indigenous lands," says Suzi Huff Theodoro, a geologist and professor at a University from Brasilia.

If approved, the norm would authorize the exploitation of minerals, agriculture and the generation of energy in those ecosystems that the indigenous people preserve like no other and are crucial to mitigate global warming.

Bolsonaro's allies in Congress were gathering support these days thanks to that argument.

Brazil has large reserves of potassium in the Amazon, some of them in and around the lands where indigenous people live.

But in addition to the legal veto, there are technical difficulties in extracting potassium from the subsoil, necessary for fertilizers, which are, in turn, essential for the agricultural sector in Brazil.

Caetano Veloso and the large cast of artists who accompanied him at the concert held in the political heart of Brasilia protested against this bill and many others.

This is what they call

, which includes proposals that could be catastrophic for Amazonia.

Critics maintain that they are going to weaken the procedures for granting environmental permits, the use of pesticides, land appropriation and clandestine mining.

Another measure, which is being contested in court, would prevent indigenous people who were expelled from their lands before the 1988 Constitution from returning to them.

Before going on stage, the singer-songwriter met with the president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco.

And Chico Buarque has telephoned Pacheco this Thursday to express his rejection of the legislative proposals, according to the Midia Ninja website: "No one is against agribusiness itself, but against the lack of limits and unbridled greed."

For her part, the geologist Theodoro stresses that there are alternatives to potassium and that the authorities should pay attention to them.

"Brazil does not need to exploit the potassium from the Amazon, there are other sources for fertilizers, such as rock flour, which is cheaper and offers favorable results," she explains.

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