Double standards

The situation is becoming unbearable. When it comes to indigenous issues, the law only applies to some. Human rights are affirmed and contradicted at the same time, as if Brazil were forced to live with the arbitrariness of Funai (National Indian Foundation), members of the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office, the Indigenous Missionary Council (Cimi), and NGOs.

Imagine what would happen if farmers decided to charge a toll on a highway? There would be an outcry echoing through all media outlets, and the Federal Highway Police, the Federal or State Police, alerted by the Public Prosecutor's Office, would quickly intervene. The highway would be reopened, and the perpetrators of the crime would be held accountable and punished. It would, in fact, be the rule of law functioning, because no citizen can prevent others from coming and going.

So, what happens to the federal highway that runs through the Tenharim indigenous territory in Amazonas? Since 2006, the indigenous people have been charging citizens who use it a toll. The amount can reach R$ 100. People are burdened simply because some indigenous people decided to do so. They have become accustomed to impunity and the cover-up provided by FUNAI (National Indian Foundation). They create enormous social tension. What do the federal police agencies do? Nothing! The rule of law is worthless there.

Now, in this same region, we have the disappearance of three people—according to reports, they were probably kidnapped by these indigenous people. They were last seen being forcibly taken to the village.

The news is circulating that all of this happened in retaliation for the death of a chief who died in a motorcycle accident while drunk. How is that possible? Can people be kidnapped in retaliation? For a motorcycle accident, according to the police themselves? Where is the law?

A similar situation occurs with the processes of removing non-indigenous people from indigenous lands and repossession (removal of invading indigenous people). Again, double standards! The universality of the law is trampled upon.

In Mato Grosso do Sul, with tensions escalating unchecked, indigenous land invasions have multiplied, in open violation of property rights and court decisions.

When the federal police intervene, it serves to consolidate the absurdity. Rural landowners are evicted from their lands, even though they hold property titles dating back decades.

The repossession orders are not being carried out, as if the rule of law does not apply when it comes to indigenous actions that openly violate the law.

This is where "humanitarian" issues come into play, as if humanity only had one guiding principle: it only applies to some.

Funai, for its part, always claims a lack of resources to intervene when it comes to repossession. However, it finds such resources available when it comes to the removal of non-indigenous people from indigenous lands, as recently happened in Mato Grosso.

At the Suiá-Missú farm (MT), 1.800 families of small family farmers were left to fend for themselves, or rather, to face the worst of storms. The national ombudsman for human rights at the Secretariat of Human Rights himself acknowledged, in a public hearing at the Chamber of Deputies, that what happened there should never be repeated. However, it is happening again in Maranhão.

In the case of the Awá-Guajá land in Maranhão, 96% of the producers established there are family farmers and will be forced to leave the area. The federal agencies responsible for enforcing the law will be merciless. There is no effective resettlement plan for these families, only empty and hypocritical declarations. Will they just throw them onto the road like what happened to the farmers of Suiá-Missú?

How long will Funai continue acting as a state within a state, arbitrarily making its own laws as if it were not accountable to anyone? The Minister of Justice has been behaving as if his portfolio were that of Injustice. What kind of Brazil is this?