New Funai official order could paralyze the work of agents in indigenous territories

A new measure of the Ministry of Justice and Public Safety (MJSP) which is in charge of the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI) may represent the end of the possibility for agents to carry out field work in indigenous lands. The analysis is from the investigative project “Amazonas: lies have a price”, from the news platform InfoAmazônia.

The letter No. 118/2022 /, February 2nd, announces the non-payment of per diems for field work “when the Administration provides directly to the agent means of travel, food and accommodation, i.e. all expenses arising from the travel on duty”. For government employees, this is a loophole the government has found to try to paralyze the actions in indigenous territories, since, when traveling to these locations, the employees use the funds made available to buy food for themselves during their stay and to pay for work equipment to sleep in the forest, such as hammocks and raincoats.

“Funai has created a mechanism to discourage the work of employees in the field and thus reduce actions to combat illegal activities within indigenous lands and, at the same time, explicitly favor criminals,” says Márcio Meira, former president of the official Brazilian indigenous body.