It is inappropriate to honour Jair Bolsonaro with Medal of Indigenous Merit given the president’s anti-environment policies and push to allow mining and oil exploration on Indigenous reservations, tribal leaders and activists say.
Brazilian tribal leaders and
advocates have criticised the granting of an Indigenous rights award to President Jair Bolsonaro, calling it an “atrocity” that ignores his record on dismantling protections for native people and the environment.
Justice Minister Anderson Torres on Wednesday gave the Medal
of Indigenous Merit to his boss, Bolsonaro, in “recognition for
relevant services” in the defence of Indigenous communities.
But Indigenous Brazilians and environmental activists said on Thursday it was inappropriate to give such an award to the former army captain, who has questioned the veracity of global heating, has erased environmental protections and has pushed to allow mining and oil exploration on Indigenous reservations.
“It is an atrocity to honour a president who has shamelessly
opposed Indigenous people,” said Congresswoman Joenia Wapichana,
the second Indigenous representative ever to sit in the
Brazilian legislature.
She has introduced a bill to annul the
decree giving Bolsonaro the medal.
One former recipient of the prize said he would be handing
it back in protest.
Ethnographer Sydney Possuelo, a leading authority on
isolated Amazon tribes who earned the same decoration 35 years
ago for his work creating the Yanomami reservation, said he no
longer wanted the medal.
In a statement, he said it had “lost
all meaning.”
READ MORE:
Brazil firms blast Bolsonaro bill on mining Indigenous lands
Defunding Indigenous agency
Leaders of Brazil’s 900,000 Indigenous people say Bolsonaro
has been the most detrimental president in four decades of
democracy for their rights and claims to ancestral lands.
Backed by Brazil’s powerful farm lobby, Bolsonaro has long
advocated for greater development of the Amazon, the largest
tropical rainforest on the planet.
In office, he has defunded the government’s Indigenous affairs agency Funai and said his government would not recognise another inch of land claimed by tribes.
In 2020, he sparked outrage when he said: “The Indian has
evolved and become more and more a human being like us,” adding
that he wanted them to integrate more into Brazilian society.
READ MORE: Brazil groups urge EU to ban all imports linked to deforestation
Source: Reuters
Brazil Indigenous rights medal to Bolsonaro sparks outrage
Source: Pinay Pop Showbiz
