MPF sees fallacy in releasing mining on indigenous land and says it will contest the project

The MPF (Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office) points out “incurable addiction”, “fallacy” and “sponsorship of conflict of interests” in the bill that allows mining in indigenous lands and provides for a challenge to the law, in case of approval by Congress, in more than ten lawsuits filed in the Federal Court against mining exploration in demarcated territories in the Amazon.

The Chamber of Deputies can vote this Wednesday (9) on the urgency of the project. The leader of the government in the House, Ricardo Barros (PP-PR), stated on a social network that the leaders of the parties will measure support for the text with their benches.

President Jair Bolsonaro (PL), House Speaker Arthur Lira (PP-AL), and the center use the pretext of the war between Russia and Ukraine – and a possible fertilizer supply crisis – to try to accelerate the vote on a project presented by the Executive in February 2020. The proposal has been stalled since then.

Of direct interest to Bolsonaro, the project was presented to Congress by the Minister of Mines and Energy, Admiral Bento Albuquerque, and by the then Minister of Justice and Public Security, Sergio Moro, now disaffected by the president and a pre-candidate for the Presidency.

Bolsonaro and Lira want the project to be voted on as a matter of urgency, directly in plenary, overruling commissions and consultations with the main stakeholders: indigenous communities. The government leader in the House has collected signatures for an urgent application.

Federal prosecutors working in the Amazon region told the sheet that, if the bill succeeds, the MPF will continue to contest mining initiatives in indigenous lands.

For this, the procedure provided is an incidental unconstitutionality claim, in which the actions would point out the law as unconstitutional, so that the Justice, then, decides the merits of the case.

The MPF has already filed public civil actions against mining requests on indigenous lands in the Amazon, filed with the ANM (Agência Nacional de Mineração).

ANM’s practice is to keep these requirements suspended, without canceling them, according to the MPF. There are actions of the type in Federal Courts in Amazonas, Pará, Roraima and Amapá.

Other lawsuits challenge mining ventures with an impact on neighboring indigenous lands or developed on lands not yet demarcated.

For the MPF, Bolsonaro’s argument about the need for indigenous lands for the exploitation of potash – the basis for fertilizers used in large-scale agriculture – makes no sense, as the mines with exploration potential are outside these demarcated areas.

“The state of belligerence, external threat or even the declaration of war between two or more countries does not authorize the reduction of the system of international protection of human rights, particularly of minorities and vulnerable groups”, affirm members of the Chamber of Indigenous and Traditional Communities, a collegiate body that works within the scope of the PGR (Attorney General’s Office).

The collegiate released a technical note on Tuesday night (8) in which it points out the unconstitutionality of the bill.

The deputy attorneys general who are part of the chamber have already prepared two other technical notes against the bill that allows mining in indigenous lands, one in 2020 and another in 2021. The tone of the two notes is also broadly critical of the Bolsonaro government’s proposal.

According to the PGR chamber, there are 4,000 mining procedures that affect 216 indigenous lands. They are basically requests for exploitation by individuals and legal entities, without validity due to the illegality of this type of exploitation.

The bill treated as a priority by Bolsonaro contains an “incurable vice”, as it tries to regulate mining in indigenous lands without a prior congressional debate on the public interest of the Union, according to the PGR collegiate.

There is a lack of a complementary law for this, and therefore the proposal would mean a violation of the Federal Constitution.

“This bill sponsored the conflict of interests and rights that are pacified in the body of the Constitution of the Republic”, affirm the deputy attorneys.

“The ordinary legislator cannot enact a mining policy that derogates an entire chapter of the Constitution, turning into a dead letter constitutional provisions that came to light in the National Constituent Assembly, as an instrument for repairing a historic debt of centuries of oppression against indigenous peoples in Brazil. “, say the members of the PGR.

Bolsonaro’s project starts from a “false premise” about the possibility of carrying out mining economic activity on indigenous lands and translates into a “fallacy” when making an equivalence between economic activities and strategic activities in mining, they argue.

In addition to disrespecting the Constitution, the project defies convention number 169 of the ILO (International Labor Organization), since “there was no prior consultation with the affected indigenous communities”, say the members of the PGR.

According to the MPF, large mining projects represent a “serious threat” to the integrity of indigenous lands, as has occurred at different times in recent history.

“The presentation of PL 191/2020 and the demonstrations of support for mining emanating from some authorities explain, at least in part, the growth of this illegal activity on indigenous lands, which threatens indigenous communities close to the mining areas.”

This Tuesday, Lira met with party leaders to discuss the project. To the opposition, the president of the Chamber said that he was going to take the proposal to create a working group to debate the mining text to allies at the base of the government.

In the opinion of the leader of the PSB in the Chamber, Bira do Pindaré (MA), there is no need to vote on the text now. “It is a great opportunism to try to pass a project that is a government agenda”, he criticized.

The leader of the Network in the Chamber, Joenia Wapichana (RR), the first indigenous woman to win an election for Congress, considers it absurd to vote on the project – which still has no opinion -, especially at a time of pandemic, which inhibits popular participation.

“And also with an unjustifiable justification, which is Russia’s war with Ukraine, saying that there will be a lack of fertilizers and that the solution would be to exploit indigenous lands.”

According to her, the project will not provide an answer to the fertilizer crisis. “It has formal vices, because it is a matter established through ordinary law, but the regulation of indigenous lands, in my opinion and that of many jurists, should be by complementary law”, she said.

“They want to use the project to justify the possibility of a lack of potassium in Brazil. There are not such large reserves of potassium in indigenous lands,” he said. “They are taking advantage of a war that is happening in the world to create another war here within Brazilian territory, on top of indigenous territories.”

An event scheduled for this Wednesday (9) tries to pressure Congress against the approval of texts seen as harmful to the environment. About 40 artists are expected to meet with the president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), to discuss the topic.

The so-called Ato da Terra, which will take place in front of the National Congress, was convened by singer Caetano Veloso and brings together more than 230 organizations.