Task force to remove invaders from the Munduruku Indigenous Land. Photo: Ministry of Indigenous Peoples
The federal government began this Saturday (9) the deintrusion operation of the Munduruku Indigenous Land (TI), in the municipalities of Jacareacanga and Itaituba, in Pará.
The action, which is coordinated by the Civil House, involves 20 federal bodies and aims to remove invaders who promote illegal gold mining and ensure that the territory remains exclusively for the more than nine thousand indigenous peoples of the Munduruku, Isolated Alto Tapajós and Apiaká peoples, who inhabit 61 villages.
With almost 2.4 million hectares, the Munduruku TI, approved on February 25, 2004, has suffered from the invasion of miners and deforestation. According to a technical note from the Management and Operational Center for the Amazon Protection System (Censipam), an agency of the Ministry of Defense, illegal mining activity occurs mainly along the Tapajós, Cabitutu and Tropas rivers.
The disintrusion operation is the result of a lawsuit alleging Noncompliance with Fundamental Precepts (ADPF) 709 filed with the Superior Federal Court (STF) by the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (Apib).
In August 2020, the articulation called for compliance with protection measures for indigenous communities to contain the spread of conflicts in indigenous territories. In the action, in addition to the Munduruku TI, the entity requested the deintrusion of the Yanomami, Karipuna, Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau, Kayapó, Arariboia and Trincheira Bacajá Indigenous Lands. Due to the large presence of miners, the STF determined that indigenous land be prioritized for deintrusion.
Operational base
On Thursday (7), the teams that will work on the removal of non-indigenous people participated in a general meeting at the Army’s 23rd Jungle Infantry Brigade, in Itaituba, which will be responsible for coordinating logistical support. To this end, the command of the Northern Military Command established an operational base at Jacareacanga airport.
One of the members of the task force, the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama), highlighted that between January 1 and August 29, 2023, the municipalities of Itaituba, Jacareacanga and Novo Progresso, in the state of Pará , generated 9,017 mining alerts. Of these, 7,653 were located within Federal Conservation Units or indigenous lands, representing 41% of the total alerts registered in Brazil in the period.
According to the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples (MPI), the illegal occupation of indigenous territories results in a series of damages to the environment and the people who live in them.
“The Munduruku Indigenous Land, for example, is one of the most affected by illegal mining in Brazil, which results in deforestation of the territory, contamination of rivers and soil by mercury, damage to the health of indigenous peoples who suffer from this contamination, violence against indigenous people, impact on indigenous culture that is directly connected with nature, among others”, said the ministry.
Claim
In June, representatives of the Munduruku expressed themselves through a letter demanding compliance by the public authorities with the disintrusion decisions. The Munduruku also demanded the demarcation of indigenous lands in the middle Tapajós, Sawre Muybu and Sawre Ba’pim, which have processes stopped at the National Foundation of Indigenous Peoples (Funai) and the Ministry of Justice and Public Security.
According to MPI, deintrusions are part of the priority goals of MPI’s Integrated Strategic Planning (PEI), which aims to carry out 32 processes by the end of 2026.
Participating in the Munduruku TI deintrusion task force are the Civil House; the General Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic; the Secretariat of Social Communication (Secom); the ministries of Justice and Public Security; Defense, Environment and Climate Change; Agrarian Development and Family Farming; Development and Social Assistance, Family and Fight Against Hunger; of Indigenous Peoples; Human Rights and Citizenship; Labor and Employment; General Staff of the Armed Forces; Funai; Ibama; Federal Police; National Public Security Force; Federal Highway Police; Brazilian Intelligence Agency (Abin) and the Management and Operational Center for the Amazon Protection System (Censipam). There will also be the participation of federal regulatory agencies that will act in supervision.
