We, leaders of 130 different indigenous peoples, uniting more than one thousand indigenous, in the capital Brasilia (Federal District), in our 6^th Acampamento Terra Livre, from May 4 to 8 of 2009, with the objective of consolidating proposals for a new Indigenous Statute for the purpose of regulating our rights assured by the Federal Constitution, and further to take notice of the situation of the rights of our peoples in the various regions of the country, with the intend to construe common perspectives for the defense of these rights, at the distinct branches of the Brazilian State and the public opinion, national and international, we declare:

 

To the Executive Power

 

1. The lamentable delay that characterized the administration of the Lula Government in creating conditions that make possible the reality the propositions constructed with our participation and materialized in its Programa de Governo para os Povos Indigenas, since 2002, which within other demands pointed to the creation of the Conselho Superior de Politica Indigenista and the demarcation of all Indigenous Lands. Six and a half years have passed, the remaining obligation is great, and the government has the challenge of fulfilling, in one year and a half, all of these remaining commitments, in the same way with which it has attended to the claims of other social segments, as in the case of the ruralist block in the National Congress. Notwithstanding, attending to our claims, we recognize the efforts that made possible the creation of the Comissão Nacional de Politica Indigenista (CNPI), in the ambit of which we succeeded in negotiating the terms of the Law  that created the Conselho Nacional de Política Indigenista as well as the process of construction of a New Indigenous Statute, coherent with our interests and aspirations, and that for more than 14 years, has been awaiting votation by the National Congress.


2. We believe and claim that, for coherence and in the perspective of compensating for all the delays mentioned above, the Lula Government pledge itself in fact, by means of its political base in the National Congress, to the legal process and approval of the New Statute of the Indigenous Peoples, that it be known in history as the government that broke with the tutelary, authoritarian and integrationist indigenism that shaped Law nr. 6.001 of 1973, the present “Statute of the Indian”.


3. As such we demand of the Lula Government the fulfillment of the constitutional mandate to demarcate all Indigenous Lands of Brazil, but extremely urgently that of our Guarani Kaiowá brethren in Mato Grosso do Sul, submitted for decades to a vile and criminal process of marginalization, ethnocide and genocide, at the hands of plantation owners and distinct entities of the Brazilian state, be it by action or omission. Our peoples will never accept remaining expulsed from their traditional territories nor being confined to diminished lands. Thus we demand, in addition to demarcation, the disintrusion or desoccupation of indigenous lands like Marawaitzedé, of the Xavante People in Mato Grosso, and the land of the Paraxó Hã Hã Hãe People, in southern Bahia.


4. We demand of the Lula Government that it not cede to the pressures and the voracity of the sectors and representatives of coronelismo (colonelism), agribusiness and remnants of the dictatorship, that in the name of development and even of democracy and the Brazilian people, publicly declare, in open or camouflaged form, that we, the indigenous, are a threat to the country, its development and political and territorial unity, seeking meanwhile, the usurpation and destruction of our territories and the natural resources, water and biodiversity existing in them, to, in the end, achieve our total integration into the so-called national communion, if not, our extinction as ethnically and culturally different peoples. As has been said by our leader Davi Kopenawa Yanomami, Nature is worth more than money, and we will not accept the uprooting of our Mother Earth from us and all therein that to days these, for thousands of years, we have preserve, with which we continue to contribute to global equilibrium, the mitigation of the changes to climate and, as such, to the well being of humanity.


5. For this we are opposed to the decision of the Government to implant at any cost the grand projects that have the power to impact our lands and our physical and cultural survival, even without so much as being concerned with consulting us, conform   Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization (ILO), which today is Law in this nation. We repudiate the twisting of environmental legislation and the tricks that enable the issuing of licenses and the consequent execution of the works such as Pequenas Centrais Hidrelétricas and of the projects like the Transposition of the Rio São Francisco.


6. In the area of Health Care, which presents a critical and calamitous situation for our peoples, taking into account the non-fulfillment of the resolutions and deliberations of the 4^th National Conference on Indigenous Health Care, conducted in March of 2006, ratified by the 13^th National Conference on Health Care, conducted in November of 2007, we demand of the Federal Government:

 

·        immediate implementation, by means of Presidential Decree, the administrative, financial, and political autonomy of the 34 Distritos Sanitários Especiais Indigenas (DSEIs), within 90 days;

·        a guarantee of the creation of a special account (District Fund of Indigenous Health), for these 34 Districts, for the financing of Indigenous Health care;

• a guarantee that the Basic Sanitation in Indigenous areas be transferred and linked to the Sanitation Districts or that be created within the ambit of the Sanitation Districts the ‘Department of Indigenous Basic Sanitation’;


• To create in emergency character and guaranteeing the effective functioning of a Grupo de Trabalho (Working Group, or Task Force) composed of representative of the Acampamento Terra Livre, of the indigenous congressional bloc on the Comissão Nacional de Política Indigenista (National Commission of Indigenous Policy), of the Government, of the Ministério Público Federal (Federal Public Ministry), of the Conselho Nacional de Saúde (CNS), of the Forúm de Presidentes de Conselhos de Saúde Indigena (Forum of Presidents of Indigenous Health Counsels), to conduct macro regional seminars in the 5 (five) regions of the nation, seeing to the construction and implementation of the proposal by the Special Secretary of Indigenous Health.


• That the Federal Government deliver to the National Congress a formal petition, soliciting the removal of item 05 (indigenous health) from the Law Proposal No. 3.598/2008.


• Immediate implementation of the portaria GM-MS, No. 1235/08, which creates the Taskforce to define the framework of personnel necessary to execute the action for indigenous health care, to fulfill the Termo de Conciliação Judicial.

 

The Judicial Power

 

1. Even with the advances consecrated in the Federal Constitution of 1988, which recognized the multiethnic and multicultural character of the Brazilian State, putting an end to the homogenizing and integrationist politics, to guarantee our right to difference, and further despite the important decisions like the recent guarantee, by the Supremo Tribunal Federal (Brazilian Supreme Court), that our lands are to be demarcated in continuous form, we remain very concerned over the continuing of limited interpretations of the application of the constitutional and procedural norms and of the protection and promotion of the rights of our peoples.


2. We repudiate the attempt to silence us in respect to our right to manifest ourselves over any judicial or administrative measures whatsoever that could affect our lands, our sociocultural integrity and the destiny of our future generations. The determination of the recent Supreme Court ruling in the conditions 5 and 7, according to which, respectively, “the usufruct of the indians does not superimpose to the interest of the Policy of National Defense” and “does not impede the installation of public equipments”, freeing therefore, their implantation “independently of consulting the indigenous communities involved”, would enable resuscitation of authoritarian, colonialist, ethnocidal, genocidal, and ecocidal conducts and practices. We will not give up our right to give our opinions about the destiny of our peoples.


3. We understand that the demarcation of the indigenous lands should abide by the constitutional text, which recognizes our originary right to our traditional lands, considering case by case, and respecting fully our ethnic and cultural diversity. Contrary to blocking our territorial right, as determines condition 17 of the last  Supreme Court ruling, the judiciary should be concerned with the safeguarding and guaranteeing the State of Right, judging and punishing the invaders who destroy Mother Nature, who deforest and degrade our territories and contaminate our rivers, and who persecute and assassinate our leaders and communities.


4. It is time for the Judiciary to put in practice the end of prejudice and of discrimination against our peoples, to proceed with a perspective of respect and valorization of the wealth of ethnic and cultural diversity of our country, so rightly highlighted by Minister Carlos Brito, in reporting the case of Indigenous Land Raposa Serra do Sol.

 

To the Legislative:

 

We know that the Brazilian Legislative is dominated by sectors, which, contrary to the regulation of our rights, recognized 20 years ago by the Federal Constitution, have organized themselves with the intend to restrict our rights.

 

We remind, however, that the debt of the Brazilian State as to our peoples is priceless, that the minimum that we demand is that we be guaranteed the tenure and exclusive usufruct of our lands, the little that is left to us, and that we be left in freedom to live in this country, that once was all ours, according to our uses and customs. We are, yes, Brazilians, but with specific and differentiated rights.

 

In this way, we demand of the legislative that it render unviable the legal process and approval of any initiatives whatsoever that affront and intend to reverse our rights assured by the Federal Constitution of 1988. We demand, furthermore, the pledge for the approval of the Law Proposal that creates the Conselho Nacional de Política Indigenista and that of the new Statute of the Indigenous Peoples, conforming to our interests and aspirations, avoiding in this way the retaliation of all the questions that speak in respect to our peoples.

 

To the Brazilian people

 

We call to all segments of Brazilian civil society to join us in this struggle for full respect of our rights, as part of the total democratization of our country, of which we are proud to be part of, but that lamentably still discriminates against us and marginalizes us, under the pressure and domination of a few, who desire only their profit and individual well being, ignoring our fundamental contribution to the preservation of Nature, in benefit to the global equilibrium and the well being of all Brazilians and of humanity.

 

To our peoples, we reaffirm our determination to advance in our organization and struggle, to guarantee the enforcement of our rights. Today, and for the good of our future generations.

 

Brasilia, 07 May of 2009