The auditorium of the Commission of Consumer and Minorities Rights and
Environment of the Chamber of Deputies was not large enough for the public
audience which marked the delivery of the Letter from Indian Peoples and
Organizations of Brazil. This letter expresses the claims and proposals put
forward during the 1st General Assembly of CAPOIB (Council for the
Articulation of Indian Peoples and Organizations of Brazil), which was held
in Luziania on April 3-7 and was attended by 203 leaders from 76 peoples and
40 organizations. In the presence of deputies and senators, they gave a
detailed account of the status of Indian lands in all regions of Brazil in
terms of their demarcation and denounced acts of violence against Indians.
The letter stresses the need to ensure social rights in the forthcoming
Constitutional Reform, as well as the right to self-demarcation and Land
Reform, and expresses firm positions in relation to the Indianist agency,
the Charter of the Indians, the need to ensure an adequate assistance to
Indian peoples and the performance of the judiciary Branch. The audience
marked the establishment of the Joint Congress Commission for inspecting the
demarcation of Indian lands, whose creation was approved by the president of
the Minorities Commission, Josi Sarney Filho, and by the president of the
Chamber of Deputies, Lums Eduardo Magalhces.
The refusal of President Fernando Henrique Cardoso to receive an Indian
commission disappointed the Indians, particularly because he had pledged to
do so in a visit to Manaus not long ago. As a means of protesting against
the decision of the president, they refused to deliver a document they
intended to give him and threatened to denounce, at the international level,
the lack of concern of the Brazilian government with the Indian issue.
Inside the Planalto Palace, President Fernando Henrique Cardoso was holding
a meeting with the German ambassador to Brazil, Carl Dieter-Spranger, who on
the same day signed a covenant in support of the demarcation of Indian lands
in Amazonia. This week, Amnesty International told the press that the
performance of the Brazilian government is falling short of its
expectations. In an interview, its secretary-general, Pierre Santi, said
that he fears that the commitments of the government in relation to human
rights "may be more aimed at impressing the national and international
community that at producing concrete results". He may be right, as it turned
out that the commitment which the president announced in Manaus was clearly
more aimed at impressing the media than of actually showing that he really
cares for Indian issues.
CAPOIB's 1st Assembly ended on Friday, the 7th, with the approval of the
Charter of the Council and the selection of members to the Coordinating and
Executive Commissions, which are subordinated to the General Assembly and
will meet every two years. The meeting marks the beginning of a new stage in
the struggle of Indian peoples and organizations of Brazil, which now have a
national articulation and support mechanism and can directly voice their
claims at all levels of the Brazilian political structure.
Brasilia, April 17, 1995.
Indianist Missionary Council - Cimi