Outcry as Brazil congress moves to gut environment and Indigenous ministries

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Outcry as Brazil congress moves to gut environment and Indigenous ministries

Plan to drastically dilute bodies’ powers would deal severe blow to Lula’s attempt to reverse Bolsonaro’s era of Amazon devastation

Tom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro
Thu 25 May 2023 16.25 BST
Last modified on Thu 25 May 2023 16.48 BST

Brazilian activists have voiced outrage after congress moved to drastically dilute the powers of the environment and Indigenous peoples ministries in what campaigners called a potentially crippling blow to efforts to protect Indigenous communities and the Amazon.

Hopes that Brazil could turn the page on Jair Bolsonaro’s era of Amazon devastation were sky-high after the far-right leader lost last year’s presidential election to the leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. During his campaign Lula vowed to stamp out environmental crime and champion Indigenous people, and after taking power in January put the veteran environmentalist Marina Silva in charge of environmental affairs and made the Indigenous activist Sônia Guajajara head of a new ministry for Indigenous peoples.

But that optimism received a dramatic reality check on Wednesday as members of the conservative-dominated congress – where the ruralista caucus representing agribusiness interests remains a powerful force – moved to severely weaken both ministries.

By 15 votes to 3, a congressional committee approved draft legislation that would strip the environment ministry of control of the rural environmental registry, a key tool in the fight against illegal deforestation and land-grabbing, and water resources. The rule change would also strip the ministry for Indigenous peoples of responsibility for delimiting Indigenous territories, handing those powers to the justice ministry.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/25/brazil-congress-environment-indigenous-ministry-powers

No-registration link: https://archive.is/3MR41

[Judi Lynn]

1. What a shame Brazil still has so many dirty fascists in its legislature, people like Bolsonaro.

It's so hard to tell which South American big country has the nastiest group of criminals of all controlling the legislatures, and conducting vicious wars against those who struggle to bring help and hope to the truly abused, reviled, impoverished, deprived majorities of the people.

Never forget that former President Dilma Rousseff was imprisoned and tortured by a previous dictatorship, and that when Bolsonaro was in that same nasty legislature, they engineered a dirty impeachment of Pres. Rousseff, and Bolsonaro stood up and declared he was dedicating his vote to remove her to the officer who was in charge of torturing her in prison.

Of course Bolsonaro got away with it. There was nothing done to check him, not ever.

Brazil's legislature is dirty to the core, and needs deep cleaning.

What a shame they are free to bring even greater suffering to the most helpless of Brazil's people. A huge karmic debt has been accumulating they will have to pay when it's time.