6 May 2021 – by Evelyn Workman
A landmark decision in the fight for the rights of Brazil’s Indigenous communities has been made by the country’s Supreme Federal Court (STF). STF judges have agreed to review a 2014 ruling which cancelled the demarcation of ancestral territory of the Guarani Kaiowá Indigenous people. The court came to this conclusion because the 2014 ruling hadn’t included input from the Indigenous community.
The Guyraroká territory, in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul, was recognized as an Indigenous territory in 2004, and the demarcation process of the territory began in 2009. However, in 2014, STF judges ruled that the Guarani Kaiowá had no legal claim to the territory because they were not living there in 1988, when the Brazilian Constitution was adopted.
This latest STF ruling doesn’t overturn the 2014 ruling to cancel the demarcation of the territory, however the case does set an important precedent for other similar cases involving Indigenous land rights.
This recent ruling is important in the current political climate as it marks a push back against the devastation Indigenous communities have faced during the Bolsonaro administration. In recent years President Jair Bolsonaro’s government has pushed to open up Indigenous land to mining, ranching and logging, the biggest attack on Indigenous communities in decades. Bolsonaro has made clear his opposition for Indigenous land demarcation, therefore this STF ruling marks a setback for his administration.
