Yesterday (March 12), the National Congress passed the General Federal Budget for the indigenous policy with cuts of at least R$ 106.56 million. The Indianist Missionary Council was outraged with this decision, because the reduced budget failed to contemplate the defrayal of necessary measures to meet indigenous peoples’ demands throughout the country.

 

The budget’s approval had been requested by the federal government that, through the Joint Budget Committee (CMO), proposed cuts in the budget to the parliamentarians. According to a technical note issued by the Institute for Socioeconomic Studies (Inesc), the actions that will be most affected are related to indigenous health care, sanitation projects in indigenous villages, indigenous peoples’ social care, and land demarcation actions. In Cimi’s opinion, considering the chaotic situation of indigenous health care in Brazil, these budget cuts are unacceptable.

 

While indigenous people from all over the country complain of the precarious health care available to them, the budget for the “indigenous health care” program was reduced by R$ 65.1 million. The budget for the “Promoting, watching, protecting and recovering indigenous health care” action was reduced by R$ 53.4 million in relation to its original proposal. Given this situation, it is hard to believe that the National Health Foundation (Funasa) will comply with the promises it made to different indigenous peoples, such as the Yanomami people and indigenous people in the Javari Valley, that urgent actions will be carried out to improve the serious health situation faced in their communities.

 

To make things worse for indigenous people in terms of health care, there was a cut of 40% in the budget proposed for implementing sanitation projects in indigenous villages (from R$ 47.5 to R$ 28.5 million) and of 20% in the amount proposed for carrying out actions to improve indigenous peoples’ food and nutrition security (from R$ 6.7 to R$ 5.3 million). Meanwhile, the Guajajara children (who live in the state of Maranhão) have been suffering the severe effects of not being served by a sewage system and of having to consume contaminated water (in 2007, 16 Guajajara children died from waterborne diseases).

 

Cimi also protests against a cut of R$ 5.3 million in the budget proposed for land demarcation actions. The National Foundation for Indigenous People (Funai) will receive R$ 39.5 million to officialize the bounds of indigenous lands. This cut will jeopardize the establishment of technical groups to identify indigenous lands and to resume land demarcation procedures. It will also delay the payment of damages to non-indigenous people who live in indigenous lands for improvements made in officially confirmed indigenous areas. In Cimi’s opinion, the delay to confirm the bounds of indigenous lands is one of the main factors that led to a higher number of murders of indigenous people in recent years.

 

Funds earmarked for land demarcation procedures in 2008 increased by R$ 13.2 million as compared to those authorized in 2007; however, they will not change the curve of reductions in the spending with land demarcation procedures observed in recent years  (2001- R$ 67.138 million; 2002- R$ 53.323 million; 2003- R$ 51.034 million; 2004- R$ 47.870; 2005- R$ 42.496).

 

Outraged with the failure of the Brazilian Government to assist indigenous people as it should, Cimi believes that the government should be held accountable for an increasing rate of killing diseases, the malnutrition experienced by indigenous peoples, invasions of indigenous lands and murders of indigenous people. In Cimi’s opinion, once again these budget cuts clearly show that indigenous peoples are not being given priority. On the contrary, they justify the public statements made by the President of the Republic that indigenous people are just hurdles to be removed. In the opinion of the current government, indigenous peoples are hindering economic “development” as anticipated in the Growth Acceleration Plan.

 

   ***

 

Indigenous peoples from the state of Roraima believe that invaders will be removed from the Raposa Serra do Sol land

 

Between March 6 and 10, the 37th Assembly of Indigenous Peoples from the state of Roraima was held in the Raposa Serra do Sol land. Despite the acts of aggression they suffered during the meeting, they left the assembly with a firm determination to take actions to complete the removal of invaders from that land, which had its bounds officially confirmed in 2005.

 

“We now believe that invaders will be removed from the Raposa do Sol land,” stressed the coordinator of the Indigenous Council of Roraima, Dionito de Souza. He also said that farmers are trying to provoke a violent removal. “I only regret the fact that they stay in the city and remove poor families who live in the outskirts first to defend their interests,” he added.

 

According to Dionito, the Assembly was very important for strengthening the organization of indigenous peoples from the state of Roraima, despite the acts of aggression they suffered as it was being held. Many gunmen were seen in the Surumu region, where the meeting was held. “They even threw a smoke bomb near the site where the assembly was being held,” Dionito said.

 

Besides this fact, on March 8 six houses of different indigenous people were destroyed in the Mutum community, which is also located inside the Raposa Serra do Sol land. Twenty participants in the assembly went to the region. Indigenous people managed to catch two men involved in this violent operation. They said they were working for a miner called Pedro Gaúcho. “We know that the invaders have been threatening and trying to intimidate us, but we will not be intimidated by them,” Dionito stressed.

 

 

Mining activities and health problems

 

In a final document, the participants in the meeting also declared that they are against mining activities inside the indigenous lands located in the state. They also reported health problems which have been afflicting indigenous peoples from Roraima, particularly stressing the situation faced by the Yanomami people, who have no permanent assistance, and problems in the East Sanitary District, whose equipment and vehicles are in precarious conditions.

 

        Brasília, March 13, 2008.

  Cimi – Indianist Missionary Council

  www.cimi.org.br