The presidency of Funai (National Indigenous Foundation) produced an illegal intelligence report to falsely persecute and accuse officials of the agency itself and indigenous associations, says the MPF (Federal Public Ministry) in a complaint against the president of the foundation, Marcelo Augusto Xavier da Silva .
The Public Prosecutor’s Office in Amazonas denounced Xavier to the Federal Court for slanderous accusation, due to the initiative of the president of Funai to provoke the opening of a police investigation against employees of the agency and associations. The complaint was signed by four prosecutors on the 21st.
The president of Funai, who is a delegate of the Federal Police, knew of the innocence of the accused, was aware of the “inexistence of any illegal act” and blamed false crimes on the civil servants, who acted in defense of the indigenous people, according to the MPF’s complaint.
Nine Funai civil servants, three other people, three associations and the Attorney General of the Republic Igor SpÃndola were victims of Xavier’s action, who promoted the shelving of the investigation provoked by the president of Funai.
The case involves the environmental licensing process for the Tucuruà Line, which would cross the Waimiri-Atroari indigenous land. Xavier accused Funai officials of distorting and manipulating information to delay licensing. He even pointed out crimes of influence peddling and malfeasance.
The MPF complaint states that there was “misuse of documents equated with intelligence reports, despite the fact that Funai is not included in Sisbin (Brazilian Intelligence System)”.
Funai did not respond to questions in the report until the text was published.
The report considered illegal was made on November 4, 2020. It describes “obstacles” in the negotiations for the construction of the power transmission line between Boa Vista and Manaus. The document has as annexes three technical information and a diagram about the Waimiri-Atroari Community Association, according to the MPF.
“The document brought all sorts of inferences against Funai employees and other people related to indigenous rights that would be affected by the enterprise”, says the MPF in the complaint.
The president of Funai sent the document to the PF and to Abin (Brazilian Intelligence Agency), according to the Republic’s prosecutors. “At each step of the criminal representation, another was carried out, in the field of State intelligence.”
The PF even questioned the existence of documents presented as classified (when there is some degree of secrecy) in the representation made, according to the complaint, which was subsequently changed by the substitute president of Funai.
The MPF questioned the president of Funai about sending the report to the PF, which became part of the inquiry. “The accused himself confessed to the authorship of the illegal intelligence report”, quotes the complaint.
Prosecutor Igor SpÃndola, who currently works in Pará, closed the investigation provoked by Xavier because he saw a lack of evidence, investigative hypothesis and characterization of crimes on the part of the accused.
The criminal investigation provoked by the president of Funai was a form of “political pressure” and was configured as a crime, the MPF member already pointed out. Xavier then made a representation against the prosecutor at the PGR (Attorney General’s Office), which also ended up shelved.
“The charges made by the accused were not made in good faith. They actually consisted of embarrassing Funai employees and the indigenous community, disrespecting constitutionally guaranteed rights and questioning the financial compensation owed by the Union”, state the prosecutors in the complaint against Xavier.
“Funai is an indigenist agency par excellence, whose primary function is to safeguard and guarantee the rights of indigenous peoples in Brazil,” says the prosecution, which seeks conviction for the commission of a crime, and compensation for moral damages in the amount of R$100,000. and loss of public office in case of conviction.
The president of Funai had already been denounced by the MPF, in BrasÃlia, for a similar case, revealed by the Sheet.
Xavier provoked the opening of an investigation by the PF to investigate a federal prosecutor who works at Funai itself and who prepared a legal opinion in favor of the indigenous people.
The president of Funai presented criminal news to the PF in BrasÃlia against the prosecutor Ciro de Lopes e Barbuda, due to the opinion prepared by the civil servant linked to the AGU (Advocacy-General of the Union) and working at Funai.
The president of Funai accused the prosecutor of apologizing for the crime, and this initiative resulted in the opening of an investigation by the PF.
The Federal Public Ministry, however, disagreed with the procedure, pointed to the crime of illegal constraint on the initiative of the president of Funai and said that immediate correction by the Judiciary was necessary. The MPF asked the Federal Court to close the case, which happened, according to the MPF.
There were also other requests for investigation, made by the president of Funai, against indigenous people and defenders of the environmental agenda.
