January 18, 2023

14:01

Ívina Garcia – from Amazon Agency

MANAUS – A public civil action, filed by the Federal Public Ministry (MPF), wants to force the Union and the National Foundation of Indigenous Peoples (FUNAI) to complete the demarcation of the territory Henê Baria Namakia (previously called TI Seringal Curralinho), in Acre.

Indigenous people of the Huni Kui (Kaxinawá) people, located in the municipality of Feijó, have been waiting 22 years for the demarcation. According to the MPF, the delay in concluding the process has caused conflicts between indigenous and non-indigenous people due to the lack of recognition of the territory.

“The conduct is clearly illegal, hurting, in this regard, not only the related principle of legality, but also the principles of morality and efficiency”, says the prosecutor responsible for the action, Lucas Costa Almeida Dias.

According to Dias, the silence of the administrative is indefensible. “The unjustified administrative silence in such a long period of time shows the inoperability of the state. Note that the delay is so long as to allow us to assume that Funai and the Union are hindering or minimizing the exercise of rights – constitutional – by the indigenous people”, he points out in the lawsuit.

The MPF received numerous denunciations from the indigenous community, reporting that non-indigenous residents were committing environmental crimes in the region, with the practice of land-grabbing, deforestation, burning, illegal logging and illegal hunting in the Kaxinawá TI, on the banks of the Envira River.

With this, the lawsuit filed against the Union and FUNAI urgently demands that the identification and delimitation studies be resumed within 45 days and that they comply with the deadlines established in Decree No. 1775/96, under penalty of a daily fine of R$ 1,000 for each. In addition, the demarcation process must be concluded within a maximum period of 24 months, under penalty of a daily fine of R$ 10,000.

It was also requested that compensation be paid for collective moral damages in the amount of R$ 5 million, to the indigenous people of the Huni Kui people of the Henê Baria Namakia TI.

AMAZON AGENCY contacted the president of the body, Joenia Wapichana, who stressed the commitment of the current government to indigenous demarcations and informed that she is due to take office at the beginning of February and cannot yet comment on the lawsuit filed by the MPF.

Under federal jurisdiction, the demarcations were suspended during the Bolsonaro government, who had stated during his campaign that “not one more centimeter of land” would be demarcated.

The process of delimitation of indigenous territories is provided for in art. 231 of the Federal Constitution of 1988 and aims to ensure the protection of the extension of the territory, certifying that all activity in the demarcation is done by the inhabitants.

Read the full text of the lawsuit: