In the first year the time frame for establishing a legal framework was in effect, 211 indigenous people were murdered in the country.

Gabriela Moncau, Brazil of Fact - During the first year of the temporal framework (Law 14.701/2023), 211 indigenous people were murdered in the country. Most of them were between 20 and 29 years old and the states with the most cases were Roraima, Amazonas and Mato Grosso do Sul. The data, referring to the year 2024, are in the Report Violence against Indigenous Peoples in Brazil, by the Indigenous Missionary Council (Cimi), published this Monday (28).

The validity of the "time frame" – a ruralist thesis according to which only lands occupied by indigenous peoples up to October 5, 1988, when the Constitution was promulgated, can be demarcated – is identified by the document as the core of the escalation of violence and delays in land demarcation in Brazil.

Last year, 424 cases of violence directed personally against indigenous people were recorded. In addition to murders, there were 20 death threats, with the highest incidence in Maranhão and Rondônia, and 35 cases of other types of threats, such as fraud, forced labor, and intimidation, often involving the firing of firearms.

Still in early 2024, about three months after the National Congress approved the time frame in defiance of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), which had declared its unconstitutionality, one of the most emblematic episodes recorded in the report took place in southern Bahia.

Indigenous leader Maria Fátima Muniz de Andrade, known as Nega Pataxó, was murdered in the traditional territory of Caramuru-Catarina Paraguaçu on January 21, 2024, in an attack by approximately 200 men orchestrated by the group “Invasão Zero” (Zero Invasion), during an illegal land repossession action against an indigenous land reclamation. The ranchers invaded the area and fired upon the community. Besides Nega, who was killed while holding her mbaraká (a type of rattle), three others were shot. Among them was her brother, Chief Nailton Pataxó Hã-Hã-Hãe.

Indigenous people reported that the military police present did nothing to intervene or help the injured. Two men were arrested in the act, and in August, the man accused of murder was released from pretrial detention by a decision of the 1st Federal Court of Itabuna after paying bail of R$ 28.240.

Another prominent case is that of Neri Ramos da Silva. The 23-year-old Guarani Kaiowá youth was killed by a gunshot to the head fired by a military police officer on September 18th in the city of Antônio João (MS). The police operation aimed to protect the Barra Farm, owned by the Ruiz family, which overlaps with the Nhanderu Marangatu Indigenous Land. According to the indigenous people, the police altered the crime scene and dragged Neri, already wounded, attempting to prevent his relatives from recovering his body.

Shortly before, in August, also in Mato Grosso do Sul, but in the Panambi Lagoa-Rica Indigenous Territory in Douradina (MS), three armed attacks injured 12 Indigenous people who had reclaimed land in the area. One of the young men still has a bullet lodged in his head. For months, the Indigenous people coexisted with a camp of farmers and gunmen just meters from the Yvy Ajherê tekoha community, with a National Force tent in the middle. The Brasil de Fato news report documented the case.

"The Avá Guarani people of Paraná continued to be victims of constant attacks in 2024, as did the Guarani and Kaiowá in Mato Grosso do Sul, especially between July and September," the report points out.

“Indigenous communities sought to secure, through occupations and land reclamations, a minimum vital space for subsistence in their own territories, amidst a scenario of hopelessness regarding the progress of land demarcations. In retaliation, they suffered a series of violent attacks from farmers and gunmen, with the connivance – and, in many cases, the direct participation – of police forces,” the document describes.

Increased deforestation and wildfires

Compared to 2023, the number of fire outbreaks in Indigenous Lands more than doubled, even considering only the territories that have already been demarcated. The Inãwébohona Indigenous Territory, in Tocantins, recorded 1.126 fire outbreaks in 2024. It was there that the "Mata do Mamão" forest, inhabited by isolated Indigenous people, was almost completely devastated.

The devastation caused by illegal mining in the Sararé Indigenous Territory, belonging to the Nambikwara people, in Mato Grosso (MT), is one of the warnings in the report, according to which the destruction was almost four times greater than in the previous year. The mining, which had devastated 343 hectares of the indigenous territory in 2023, advanced by 1.317 hectares in 2024, reaching within 200 meters of the villages.

In Pará, within the Munduruku Indigenous Territory, there was a 145% increase in deforested area compared to the previous year. This represents a loss of 539 hectares of native vegetation cover. The fires in the region were also extensive. The Munduruku territory, along with the Kayabi and Sai Cinza Indigenous Territories, recorded three times more fire outbreaks in 2024 than in 2023.

Also in Pará, the CIMI report notes a "worrying increase" in neurological diseases in children and women in the Apyterewa Indigenous Territory, possibly related to mercury poisoning due to mining activity.

The time frame affects all unregulated Indigenous lands.

Prompted to comment on the impact of the time frame through a request via the Access to Information Law (LAI) made by CIMI, the National Foundation for Indigenous Peoples (FUNAI) stated that the validity of the ruralist thesis potentially affects "all Indigenous Lands that are in an administrative phase prior to regularization".

For CIMI, this is a central element in what it considers a "slow" and "insufficient" progress in land demarcations in 2024. Throughout the year, there were only five homologations, 11 declaratory decrees, and 16 Technical Groups (GT) created by FUNAI.

Currently in the country there are 857 Indigenous Territories with pending administrative issues to be regularized. Among these, 555 have not had any action taken to begin their demarcation.

The time frame imbroglio

On September 21, 2023, the Brazilian Supreme Court (STF) deemed the temporal framework unconstitutional. The Legislative branch's reaction was already underway. On the same day, Senator Hiran Gonçalves (PP-RR) presented Constitutional Amendment Proposal (PEC) 48, which proposes including the ruralist thesis in the Constitution. The proposal is still under consideration. Simultaneously, and in that same month, the National Congress approved Law 14.701/23 which, until further notice, put the temporal framework into effect.

At the hearing, the Supreme Federal Court (STF) received opposing actions to determine the validity of the law. The rapporteur, Minister Gilmar Mendes, opted, instead of endorsing a decision already made and superseded by the Court, to create a "conciliation chamber" to re-discuss the issue. Inaugurated in August 2024, when the Guarani Kaiowá were being shot at in Douradina (MS), the working group lasted until June 23rd.

Reinforcing what the indigenous movement had already denounced since the commission was created, when it withdrew from the table considering it a "farce" that sought to "negotiate the non-negotiable," the group in the Supreme Court did not reconcile anything. In the last session, the auxiliary judge of Gilmar Mendes' office, Diego Veras, said that "the minister did not deliberate on what he will do with the product of this commission, whether he will submit only this to the plenary, whether he will return here for a vote, he has not decided."

While the issue has not yet been definitively addressed by the Supreme Federal Court (STF), the temporal framework remains an open flank in Brazil. “As a consequence,” points out the CIMI report, “demarcations have progressed at a slow pace, and indigenous lands, including those already regularized, have experienced invasions and pressure from land grabbers, ranchers, hunters, loggers, and miners – among other invaders, who felt emboldened by the context of the erosion of territorial rights.”

“In addition to applying this thesis, the Law also provides for significant changes in the administrative procedures for territorial recognition. Some of these changes are difficult to implement and, according to Funai itself, are already causing 'an increase in the slowness of the processes for demarcating indigenous lands'. Others 'suffer from a lack of clarity and contradiction' and are even 'unfeasible',” the document warns.

Land conflicts

Among the 1.241 cases of violence against the property of indigenous peoples, the report records 154 conflicts related to territorial rights in 114 Indigenous Territories distributed across 19 states of the country. In almost two-thirds of the cases, the lands have not yet been officially recognized.

Another 159 Indigenous Territories had 230 cases of land invasion, illegal exploitation of natural resources, and other various damages in 21 states during the year 2024. In these cases, the majority of the areas (61%) are located in territories that have already been legally recognized.

The report also highlights that illegal oil exploration in the Amazon River estuary is already generating severe psychological impacts. The advancement of carbon credit projects in Indigenous Territories and other communities, commonly carried out without due debate and understanding, is also one of the problems detected in the survey.

Omission by public authorities

In 2024, 208 suicides of indigenous people were recorded in Brazil. As in the previous year, the states with the highest rates are Amazonas, Mato Grosso do Sul, and Roraima. In 69% of cases, the people who took their own lives were between 19 and 29 years old.

In addition, 922 deaths of children between 0 and 4 years old were recorded, with the main causes being deaths considered preventable, such as those caused by influenza and pneumonia, malnutrition, diarrhea, gastroenteritis, and intestinal infectious diseases.

Suicides and preventable child deaths are categorized in the CIMI report as consequences of public authorities' omission. Similarly, the lack of protection for the territories of indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation who have not yet received state recognition is also categorized. In the Brazilian Legal Amazon, this is the case for 119 areas. Of these, 37 remain without any action from FUNAI (National Indian Foundation) for protection or demarcation.