The president of Funai (National Indian Foundation), Marcelo Xavier, abandoned an event held by the Ibero-American General Secretariat, in Madrid, in the face of a protest against him this Thursday (21) by an indigenist.
A video shows former server Ricardo Rao, who now lives in Europe, standing up from the audience and making accusations against Xavier, who then leaves the place.
“This man is a militiaman, he does not represent the National Indian Foundation. He is a murderer, a militiaman, he is a friend of a coup government that is threatening democracy in Brazil”, says Rao.
“He is responsible for the death of Bruno [Pereira] and Dom Phillips”, declared the indigenist. Marcelo Xavier, then, gets up and leaves the place after this speech.
The episode took place during an assembly of Filac (Fund for the Development of Indigenous Peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean). When contacted, Funai did not comment on the case.
Ricardo Rao is a former Funai employee who, at the end of 2019, left Brazil after receiving threats, being the target of administrative proceedings and also after the murder of his colleague Maxiel Pereira — shot to death in Tabatinga, in the Javari Valley.
The departure took place shortly after he delivered a document entitled “Militia action connected to organized logging crime, drug trafficking and homicides committed against the indigenous peoples of Maranhão – A brief dossier” to the Human Rights Commission of the Chamber of Deputies.
In an interview with the Sul 21 portal, the former server says he was approached by agents of Abin (Brazilian Intelligence Agency) while living in Brazil.
“Another major event that convinced me that the situation was especially dangerous [para mim] was the dispatch of an Abin detachment [me abordar] at Funai in 2019. […] One day after Abin went to the National Indian Foundation, on SimplÃcio Moreira Street, in the center of Imperatriz [Maranhão, onde ele atuava]Funai opened an administrative-disciplinary process against me”, he told the portal.
Rao’s case is mentioned in the dossier recently published by civil servants, which denounces an anti-indigenous policy within the foundation.
According to the document, Xavier has implemented, under the Bolsonaro government, an anti-indigenous policy, marked by the non-demarcation of territories, persecution of indigenous servants and leaders, added to a militarization of strategic positions and the emptying of the entity’s staff.
The most recent strike by Funai civil servants called for, among other things, the departure of the current president. Also senators and deputies have already filed documents asking him to leave office.
Xavier still collects requests for investigations against indigenous people and defenders of the environmental agenda at the head of the agency. THE Sheet had access to three requests made by him to the Federal Police and one directed to Abin (Brazilian Intelligence Agency).
