from Barbara Crane Navarro Rainforest Art Project – Pas de Cartier ! by https://www.salsa-tipiti.org
SALSA Statement 27 June 2021
Strongly supported by the agro-industrial sector, Law #490/2007 provides for several changes in the territorial rights of Indigenous Peoples as guaranteed by Brazil’s Constitution.
The law applies the “time limit thesis” (marco temporal) to the question of demarcating Indigenous territories.
This fringe racist legal theory holds that Brazil’s Indigenous Peoples have the right only to lands they happened to occupy at the time of the promulgation of the Brazilian Constitution (October 1988), and not any that were stolen from them before that date.
If adopted, the marco temporal standard would likely prevent the demarcation of any additional Indigenous territories (237 territories are currently in legal limbo), while also placing at risk the 441 fully demarcated and registered Indigenous territories.
Furthermore, Law #490/2007 would open Indigenous territories to predatory activities, including mining, ranching, commercial agribusiness, and dam construction.
It goes so far as to allow the State to “retake” lands if there are significant “alterations of cultural traits” within Indigenous communities.
The Free 