Human Rights ministry pressures indigenous to concede part of their territory to land grabbers in the Amazon

A group of Parakanã indigenous is accusing the Ministry of Women, Family and Human Rights (MMFDH), led by Damares Alves, of arbitrating and participating in a meeting with farmers in order to pressure chiefs to accept a proposal that includes the reduction of the Apyterewa Indigenous Territory, located between the municipalities of São Félix do Xingu and Altamira, Pará State, in the Amazon. In a letter of denouncement and protest, to which the newspaper O Globo had access, leaders reported that the meeting came as a surprise. They were told that they would discuss the invasion of land grabbers on indigenous lands. The meeting, with representatives of the ministry of Damares and farmers, was held on an irregular rural property located inside the indigenous land. In a statement to the Federal Public Prosecution (MPF), an indigenous person that attended the meeting reported that the indigenous people were detained for three days inside the property, without outside contact, being threatened by the landowners to agree to their requests to redefine the demarcation of the territory.

The letter points out the active participation of the federal government as a threatening agent and also says that the proposition to reduce the territory is unconstitutional. “[It was] Another trick of the Federal Government, allied with the invaders and the City Hall of São Félix, to cause internal division and confuse the leaders of the Parakanã people, with the eternal promise that the reduction of territory will resolve conflicts and bring peace to the Parakanã people,” says the text.

In a note sent to the newspaper, the MMFDH denies that they tried to force a treaty that would alter the Apyterewa Indigenous Territory”.