Indigenous Group: Indigenous groups in Brazil

Business: Government of Brazil

Issue: Brazil’s government wants to enact rules that allow mining in Indigenous reserves which occupy 13 percent of the country’s territory

Comment: March 13, 2019: Reuters – Mining Secretary Alexandre Vidigal de Oliveira Albuquerque’s remarks “that Brazil would seek to open indigenous reserves to mining”
sparked an angry response from Indigenous advocates, who said it was disrespectful after the country had just suffered it’s largest-ever mining disaster that killed hundreds in January. (Mining .com – Reuters)

Last Updates: August 24, 2019: Assembly of First Nations – Canada needs to pressure Brazil to end violations of Indigenous rights, says the head of Canada’s largest Indigenous organization in a letter sent to Global Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and obtained by CBC News. Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde sent the letter dated Aug. 24 to Freeland urging Canada pressure Brazil to “end its violence” against Indigenous Peoples. Bellegarde said he was writing the letter to voice his “sadness and grave concerns” over land invasions and attacks by gold miners, ranchers and loggers on Indigenous territories in the northern Amazon region of Brazil that resulted in assaults on Waiapi women and the killing of Waiapi Chief Emvra Waiapi. (CBC)