A controversial law curtailing Indigenous rights in Brazil has come into force, marking a victory for the powerful agribusiness caucus in congress.
The new legislation upholds the so-called “time marker” theory (marco temporal), which establishes that Indigenous peoples can only lay claim to land they physically occupied as of October 1988, when the current constitution was promulgated.
Critics say this fails to acknowledge that many Indigenous groups had been displaced from their ancestral lands before that date, notably during Brazil’s 1964-1985 military dictatorship, and will invalidate scores of legitimate claims for Indigenous land demarcation.
Brazil’s supreme court vindicated such claims when it ruled that the time marker thesis was unconstitutional in a 9-2 vote in September. But less than a week later the senate voted to enshrine the theory into law.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva went on to veto several parts of the bill, but the conservative-dominated congress overrode his veto by a wide margin earlier in December.
The final law was published in the official gazette on Thursday.
“The promulgation is an attack on Indigenous communities and the environment. The law will have a negative impact on the conservation of forests, the fight against climate change, and the future of generations to come,” the Indigenous congresswoman Célia Xakriabá wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
Dubbed “the Indigenous genocide law” by the Climate Observatory environmental watchdog, the new legislation opens the door to activities such as road-building, mining, dam construction and agricultural projects on Indigenous lands – protected territories which serve as an important safeguard against deforestation.
Three of Lula’s vetoes were maintained by congress as a result of a political deal struck between the government and the opposition: the final law does not authorise contact with isolated groups, nor does it permit the use of genetically modified crops on Indigenous territories or give the government permission to reclaim land from groups whose cultural traits are deemed to have changed.
Activists warn that the law nonetheless represents a clear attack on Indigenous rights and exposes Native Brazilians to the risk of further violence.
Indigenous organisations and leftist political parties have said they are preparing to challenge the law in the supreme court.
The minister for Indigenous peoples, Sônia Guajajara, told the Folha de S Paulo newspaper her office would also appeal to the country’s top court to block legislation which “goes completely against the climate agreements that Brazil has been building internationally … and puts the rights and protection of Indigenous peoples and territories at risk”.
Speaking in a government broadcast last week, Guajajara said she remained optimistic: “The supreme court has already declared [the thesis] unconstitutional, it is hardly going to go back on its own decision. So there is still hope.”
