Facing criticism, government creates working group on indigenous children situation

Responsible for spreading false information about the Brazilian indigenous population, especially on infanticide, Damares Alves, Minister of Women, Family and Human Rights, created a working group, without indigenous participation, “on indigenous children and young people in vulnerable situations”, according to the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo. The news was seen with concern by indigenous associations, which fear the use of the initiative as an ideological instrument for the criminalization of the indigenous community and questioned its real purpose.

The organization Atini, of which she is a cofounder, is investigated by the Federal Public Prosecution in lawsuits for moral damage, after associating the Karitiana ethnic group with the practice of infanticide; and for the removal of a teenager from the Sateré-Mawé people alleging humanitarian reasons.