Brazilian tribes and forest tappers unite against Bolsonaro

Indigenous leader of the Celia Xakriaba tribe walks next to the Xingu River during a four-day pow wow in Piaracu village, in Xingu Indigenous Park, near Sao Jose do Xingu, Mato Grosso state, Brazil, January 15, 2020. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes

Brazilian indigenous tribes and rubber tappers joined forces on Wednesday to oppose steps by Brazilian far-right President Jair Bolsonaro that they say are destroying the Amazon forest they depend on.

Some 450 members of 47 tribes met for a second day to discuss how to resist Bolsonaro's moves to weaken public agencies that are meant to protect the environment and native land rights. Bolsonaro has said tribes have too much land and he wants to open up the reservations to commercial mining and agriculture to develop the Amazon and lift indigenous people from poverty.

Indigenous leader Cacique Raoni of Kayapo tribe (R) talks during a joint declaration to media with Indigenous leader Sonia Guajajara (L) and Angela Mendes (not pictured), daughter of late environmentalist Chico Mendes, during a four-day pow wow in Piaracu village, in Xingu Indigenous Park, near Sao Jose do Xingu, Mato Grosso state, Brazil, January 15, 2020. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes

Kayapó chief Raoni Metuktire, who called the meeting in his village on the Xingu river, called on Brazil's Congress to block the president's policies.

"We are here to defend our land and to tell him to stop talking badly about us," said Raoni, who became a global reference for his environmental campaigning in the 1980s with musician Sting at his side. He said he would never accept mining on his ancestral lands.

Among those attending the meeting was Angela Mendes, daughter of rubber tapper, trade union leader and environmentalist Chico Mendes who was killed by a rancher in 1988 for his efforts to protect the rainforest.

Indigenous leader Cacique Raoni of Kayapo tribe (C) talks during a joint declaration to the media, with Indigenous leader Sonia Guajajara (3rd L) and Angela Mendes (2nd R), daughter of late environmentalist Chico Mendes, during a four-day pow wow in Piaracu village, in Xingu Indigenous Park, near Sao Jose do Xingu, Mato Grosso state, Brazil, January 15, 2020. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes

"United we can resist. They have the power of the state, but we have the force of the waters, the flowers and ancestral land," she said at a news conference.

The existence of non-indigenous extractivist communities that live off rubber tapping and selling the fruits of the forest is being endangered by deforestation, she warned.

Mendes struck an alliance with Sonia Guajajara, head on the APIB umbrella, Brazil's largest organization of tribes.

A kayapo woman shouts during a four-day pow wow in Piaracu village, in Xingu Indigenous Park, near Sao Jose do Xingu, Mato Grosso state, Brazil, January 15, 2020. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes

"This is a very grave moment in our history. It looks like a war scenario," Guajajara said, accusing Bolsonaro of serving the interests of Brazil's powerful agribusiness and farming sectors that have advanced into the Amazon region.

The rise in violence against Brazil's 850,000 indigenous people due to land conflicts with farmers and illegal mining and logging on reservations threaten the tribes' future, she said.

Bolsonaro has vowed to integrate indigenous people into the Brazilian economy and society, an assimilation that Guajajara said was tantamount to the death of their cultures and languages.

A indigenous man attends a meeting during a four-day pow wow in Piaracu village, in Xingu Indigenous Park, near Sao Jose do Xingu, Mato Grosso state, Brazil, January 15, 2020. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes

Brazil's indigenous affairs agency, Funai, run by a police officer appointed by Bolsonaro, said the meeting in the Xingu was a "totally private event" that it could not support because it was not "in line" with government policy.

(Reporting by Leonardo Benassatto; Wirting by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Leslie Adler)

Indigenous people of Suya tribe perform a greeting dance during a four-day pow wow in Piaracu village, in Xingu Indigenous Park, near Sao Jose do Xingu, Mato Grosso state, Brazil, January 15, 2020. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes

Indigenous people of Yudja tribe perform a greeting dance during a four-day pow wow in Piaracu village, in Xingu Indigenous Park, near Sao Jose do Xingu, Mato Grosso state, Brazil, January 15, 2020. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes

Indigenous people of Kayapo tribe perform a greeting dance during a four-day pow wow in Piaracu village, in Xingu Indigenous Park, near Sao Jose do Xingu, Mato Grosso state, Brazil, January 15, 2020. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes

Kids play on Xingu River during a joint declaration to the media by Indigenous leaders Cacique Raoni of Kayapo tribe (C) and Sonia Guajajara (3rd L), and Angela Mendes (2nd R), daughter of late environmentalist Chico Mendes, during a four-day pow wow in Piaracu village, in Xingu Indigenous Park, near Sao Jose do Xingu, Mato Grosso state, Brazil, January 15, 2020. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes

A general view of a joint declaration to media by Indigenous leaders Cacique Raoni and Sonia Guajajara, and Angela Mendes, daughter of late environmentalist Chico Mendes, on the banks of Xingu River, during a four-day pow wow in Piaracu village, in Xingu Indigenous Park, near Sao Jose do Xingu, Mato Grosso state, Brazil, January 15, 2020. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes