On this Wednesday afternoon (23), the Congress’s rural caucus will try to vote at the Senate Agriculture and Agrarian Reform Commission (CRA, in Portuguese) on the proposal that legalizes the so-called timeframe thesis. The group, which has 50 of the 81 senators, is speeding up the process to be ahead of the Federal Supreme Court and make the thesis into law before the Court judges the case. As part of the plan, the idea is for the text to be approved by the CRA with a margin of support from the collegiate, where conservatives are the majority.
The timeframe thesis is discussed in Congress through Bill 2903/2023. The core of the measure determines that Indigenous peoples can only claim land they were already occupying before the promulgation of Brazil’s 1988 Constitution or land that was at least being disputed by Indigenous peoples at that time. The Agricultural Parliamentary Front (FPA, in Portuguese), a formal branch of the rural caucus, politically supports the bill.
The text of the bill was approved in the plenary of the Chamber of Deputies at the end of May. Soon after, it went to the Senate, where it needs to be approved by the CRA and the Constitution and Justice Commission (CCJ, in Portuguese) to be presented to the plenary. Last week, the report was read at the Agriculture Commission when some parliamentarians tried to vote on the bill. However, the government supporters negotiated a postponement of the bill’s evaluation. Progressive parliamentarians strategized so that the bill would also be evaluated by some other merit evaluation committee.
“Things are going very fast. We had this issue in the Chamber [of Deputies]. In the Senate, it arrived recently. So, we needed to have a broader dialogue on this topic because the bill underway is not just about the timeframe. The bill opens up so that Indigenous lands can be leased to agribusiness people and for other activities, for example. In my opinion, bringing this into legislation is extremely wrong”, said Senator Beto Faro (Workers’ Party-Pará state), a member of the CRA.
The bill presents other issues considered critical to Brazil’s progressive political field. This is the case with the possibility that land demarcations can be contested at any stage of the administrative process. Environmentalists point out that this could make land demarcations unfeasible. The bill also allows cultivating genetically modified plants in Indigenous areas, a practice currently prohibited due to the risk of compromising biodiversity.
In addition, the bill allows the State and civil society to contact isolated Indigenous peoples to “provide medical assistance or to mediate federal action of public utility” through the National Foundation for Indigenous Peoples (Funai, in Portuguese). The measure is one of the most controversial in the text due to the risk of cultural contamination and the gradual elimination of these groups, which generally live in isolation by their own decision.
“There are studies attesting that when [Indigenous peoples] have contact with other groups, these communities are at risk of death, extermination and such sort of things. In my assessment, the Senate must debate the issue with more time, that’s why we are working to convince the president of the Senate to present the issue to the Human Rights Commission”, says Beto Faro. The left-wing politician said to Brasil de Fato that he will present different amendments asking changes in the most controversial parts.
In recent years, Indigenous movements organized different trips to Brasilia in order to protest against the timeframe thesis. / Marcelo Camargo/Agência Brasil
Current situation
However, negotiations on the content of the bill have a low margin of success. Despite having met, this week, with interlocutors from civil society and Sônia Guajajara, the Minister of Indigenous Peoples, the bill’s rapporteur in the Agriculture Committee, Senator Soraya Thronicke (Podemos-Mato Grosso do Sul), has said that she prefers to keep the text as it is to prevent it from returning for evaluation by the Chamber of Deputies. The bill's current version is the opinion signed by federal deputy Arthur Oliveira Maia (Union Brazil Party-Bahia state).
In an interview to journalists this Tuesday (22) after a meeting with members of the rural caucus, the rapporteur said that the current moment is “a calmer climate” for evaluating the bill. "We need to turn this page, end the conflicts. There are ideological issues that became passions," she said, to defend her position about the bill last Thursday.
The hurry serves the interests of the FPA, which is running out of time to get final approval of the bill before September 7, the date from which the Supreme Court can reassess the issue of the timeframe thesis. The case was interrupted on June 7 after a request for a review by Minister André Mendonça. The Court's internal regulations provide a 90-day deadline for this type of request. So far, the score in the Supreme Court is two votes against the thesis – which came from ministers Edson Fachin and Alexandre de Moraes, the first being the rapporteur of the case – against a favorable vote by Nunes Marques.
Back to the past
For environmentalists and Indigenous leaders, Bill 2903 is a return to the past because, among other things, it provides for the nullity of the demarcation of lands that do not meet the rules outlined in the proposal. In addition, it establishes that demarcation processes that have not yet been concluded need to adapt to the norms dictated by the bill. It also prohibits the expansion of areas already demarcated.
Interlocutors in the segment point out that this forecast makes the situation of communities such as those in the Manoá/Pium Indigenous Land, located in the town of Bonfim, Roraima state, difficult. The site brings together more than 3,200 indigenous from the Wapichana and Macuxi peoples. Funai demarcated the territory at 67,000 hectares. It faces a conflict related to pressure promoted by big landowners.
“The area was ratified in 1982, but 24,000 hectares were left out of the demarcation. Today, the community is in the process of resuming, trying to add that portion of land. This bill directly affects the area. We are very worried. If the timeframe is approved, it will be difficult”, says Lázaro Alexandre, from the Tuxaua people, who were excluded from the demarcation. The case is in the Federal Court.
Edited by: Rodrigo Chagas e Nadini Lopes
