On the first day of ATL (Free Land Camp) 2024, this Monday (22), Indigenous movements drafted a letter addressed to the three Powers, demanding urgent measures to ensure the protection and strengthening of the rights of native peoples, mainly concerning territory demarcation. The ATL is the largest mobilization of indigenous peoples in the country.
Throughout the program, which runs until Friday (26) in Brasília, the organization expects to gather an audience of over 10,000 people. This year, President Lula was not invited to attend the event amid dissatisfaction with the management of indigenous agendas in his government.
According to the document signed by Apib (Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil) and regional grassroots organizations, despite the recent change in government, threats from the temporal landmark thesis to territories, cultures, and rights persist, reinforced by the context of the hottest year ever recorded in history, which highlights the ongoing indigenous emergency.
"The new law provides 'legalization' of crimes and rewards territory invaders. In just the first month of law no. 14,701/2023, the expansion of agribusiness and land leasing for monocultures and mining caused nine indigenous murders and 23 conflicts in territories located in seven states and five biomes," the text says. Read in the main plenary, the letter also states that "the cattle and bullet bench" threatens lives and territories and wants to remove indigenous rights from the Constitution, but the Supreme Federal Court reaffirmed that original rights cannot suffer setbacks—referring to the overturning of the temporal landmark thesis in the Judiciary in September of last year.