The Amazon is NOT for Sale!

Idle No More SF Bay, The Indigenous Women of the Americas Defending Mother Earth Treaty sisters and the Brasil Solidarity Network are joining forces for a powerful action.  We will be there to confront the harms that President Jaír Bolsonaro is committing against indigenous people at risk and the Amazon on June 21, 2019 in front of the Brasilian Consulate in San Francisco, CA at 9am.  Come with your friends, your voices and your signs, although we also have many signs and banners to share.

On January 1, 2019 Jair Bolsonaro took his place as Brasil’s new President.  Bolsonaro was elected on a racist, homophobic, radically Christian, right-wing platform.  On his first day in office, President Jair Bolsonaro issued MP870 which dismantled FUNAI, the agency responsible for the Brasilian state’s Indigenous policy, transferring it from the Ministry of Justice to the newly created Ministry of Women, Family, and Human Rights, commanded by Minister Damares Alves, a conservative, Evangelical preacher.
   
Damares Alves’ Atini foundation was the primary suspect of an Indigenous sex trafficking and pedophilia scandal in Brasil.  “In 2016, the federal police asked the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI) for information on alleged cases of “sexual exploitation and trafficking in Indians”. (naaju.com 1)  FUNAI is the organization dismantled by President Jair Bolsonaro on his first day in office. Therefore, the investigation against Alves was terminated.

This same measure (MP870) removes Indigenous land demarcation (determining the borders of indigenous territories) from FUNAI and handed it to the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (MAPA) under the command of Luiz Antonio Nabhan Garcia, the former leader of Uniao Democratica Ruralista (who formerly swore to stop indigenous and peasant land demarcation). The Uniao Democratica Ruralista, a right wing association supported by corporate Big Agriculture, are one of the last remnants of the fascist dictatorship.  Bolsonaro gave MAPA the power to remove ancestral territory from Brasil’s Indigenous Peoples to make a profit via cattle, soy, extractivism and sugarcane production (to name a few).

Due to ongoing resistance by indigenous peoples and their allies around the world, the Brasilian Congress and Senate voted to return land demarcation from the Ministry of Agriculture to FUNAI, while simultaneously partly reinstating FUNAI (for now). Bolsonaro’s government also tried to eliminate the Indigenous health care System (SESAI), but it was temporarily blocked due to Brasilian and international pressure. These wins reveal that solidarity that supports indigenous movements has the capacity to make tangible changes in the lives of those who protect our water, our forests, and the biodiversity we need to survive.

Brasil Solidarity Network has been organizing regular actions at the San Francisco Brasilian Consulate since January, 2019. On June 21st, we will be collaborating with Idle No More SF Bay and the Bay Area signatories of the Indigenous Women of the Americas Defending Mother Earth Treaty for their summer solstice action!  We will be gathering in front of the Brasilian Consulate (300 Montgomery St, SF) starting at 9am to stand with Indigenous Peoples in Brasil. We will be painting a street mural, have music, and singing together!. Please join us and invite ten of your friends!!

Brasil Solidarity Networks goal is to have a chapter in every major city where there is a Brasilian Consulate, conducting actions every month during the same series of days.  We believe in the power of consistent resistance. Our vision is to make enough noise that the Brasilian government is forced to respect the rights of indigenous peoples and Mother Earth.

“Mobilização dos povos Pataxó, Tupinambá e Pataxó Hã-Hã-Hãe contra a municipalização da saúde indígena, em Brasília. TIAGO MIOTTO CIMI”

https://brasil.elpais.com/brasil/2019/05/30/politica/1559238132_162541.html