A dispatch from the Directorate for Territorial Protection of Funai (Fundação Nacional do Índio) to the office of the presidency of the organ, obtained by the sheetindicates harassment and an alleged attempt to retaliate against civil servants after finding traces of the presence of isolated indigenous people in Ituna-Itatá, Pará.
When contacted, the foundation did not respond to questions in the report.
Funai carried out an expedition in the indigenous land, which is located in the municipalities of Altamira and Senador José Porfírio, in November last year, to decide on the continuity of the land use restriction, renewed 11 years ago.
The renewal usually takes place every three years, according to indigenist Elias Bigio, former general coordinator of Funai’s Coordination of Isolated Indians.
The agency reported the inexistence of isolated indigenous people even after finding traces that, in the opinion of indigenists, indicate a strong sign of the presence of these groups. The technical note was signed by the director of Territorial Protection at Funai, César Augusto Martinez.
Ituna-Itatá is one of the most deforested indigenous lands in the country. According to Coiab (Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon) and OPI (Organization of Isolated Peoples), the last three years of the Jair Bolsonaro government (PL) represent 84.5% of the 22,076.6 hectares deforested.
The order signed by Martinez says that the expedition’s report was classified as irregular, ideological and worthless in the presidency of Funai during a meeting between the foundation’s president, federal delegate Marcelo Augusto Xavier, and the Bolsonarista senator and pre-candidate for the government. of Pará Zequinha Marinho (PSC-PA).
The meeting took place on November 9 of last year. Wanted, the senator did not manifest.
In the document sent to the foundation’s presidency, Martinez claims to need a formal manifestation to subsidize the referral to Funai’s Internal Affairs regarding the “possible transgression on the part of the civil servants” who found traces of the presence of isolated people on the land.
The Federal Justice of Pará, at the request of the MPF (Federal Public Ministry), forced Funai to maintain the protection of the territory for six months, a time that would be insufficient for the work of locating and identifying the indigenous group, according to Bigio.
According to a Funai official, who asked not to be identified, from the beginning the expedition in Ituna-Itatá proved to be atypical. In general, they are planned by the teams of the protection fronts. However, for this the order came from the presidency.
One of the employees reported that the reception by farmers and land grabbers was different: they offered accommodation, “kill an ox” for meals and courteous treatment, calling them the Funai team that arrived to clear the area.
The team says it has come under pressure to focus on places devastated by the invasion, where it would be difficult to find traces of the presence of isolates.
However, there was the location of food waste and ceramic artifacts without decoration, characteristic of indigenous people contacted in the region.
According to the technical report, the pottery had no signs of sedimentation and there was little material accumulated inside, indicating recent traces.
In addition, in the food waste, there was a tortoise shell opened by blows on the upper part.
Assurini indigenous people, who live in the region, told members of the expedition that the ceramics produced by them is different from that found and that the consumption of tortoises is done with the help of metal tools at the bottom.
After the so-called ideological report came to the attention of Funai’s management, the team allegedly made a technical note to “soften” the content of the expedition.
Based on the “mild” note, Martinez signed a new order in which he says he was “urged by the Presidency of Funai” to present subsidies for the extension or not of Ituna-Itatá.
The OPI states that this is the first time that Funai has attested to the non-existence of indigenous peoples. According to the observatory, there should first be irrefutable and definitive proof of the absence of isolated indigenous peoples.
Bigio says that the renewal of the restriction of use should be at least two years. “We consider, from experience, the time (six months) insufficient. Where there is invaded indigenous land, the work is greater. People destroy the traces, the Indians stay back, hide.”
According to the indigenist, the isolated protection system provides for two teams. One to inspect, monitor and remove invaders and the other to gather information and identify the ethnic group. “Remove the invaders from the indigenous land and, only then, can we make the Indians safely occupy their territory to identify the group”.
Front workers work without police protection and report threats from loggers, land grabbers, invaders and also from the institution. In 2019, an agent from the Vale do Javari front, in Amazonas, was killed. Last year, two uncontacted indigenous people were shot to death in the Yanomami indigenous land.
