In December of 2009 the Ministério Público Federal in Ceará (MPF/CE) opened a coutr case against the state of Ceará, the Secretary of the Environment (Semace) and the Companhia Siderúrgica do Pecém (Iron and Steel Company of Pecém), with the objective of identifying the existence of the Anacé indigenous community and to delimit its traditional area.

 

Now the Federal Court decided and notified the National Foundation of Indigenous Affairs (Funai) that the necessary measures be taken to assure the protection of the lands that traditionally were occupied by the indigenous people.

 

In the decision, federal judge Alcides Saldanha Lima also considers important greater clarifications regarding the lands, which he observed being occupied, traditionally, by the indigenous Anacé people. The intention of the judge is to have the information complemented that was already elaborated by an anthropological study of the Funai presented in the civil public action, which affirms the existence of the Anacé ethnicity.

 

In the action, the MPF asks the Court that the government of Ceará be made to desist from realizing any expropriation in the lands occupied by the Anacé indigenous community, who are threatened with forced removal from their traditional lands due to the pretended installation of the Industrial Complex and the Port of Pecém (CIPP).

 

The MPF, in a statement released on the internet, informs that, “the decision is important and signifies a decisive step toward definitive recognition of the Anacé ethnicity”.

 

With information from the Federal Public Ministry / State of Ceará

Daniel Fonsêca

Journalist/ Fortaleza, Ceará