Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva: Let's talk and keep working so that we continue to have, as we do today, legal security and also respect for the rights of the original people
RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Friday vetoed the core aspects of a bill passed by Congress that threatened to undo protections of Indigenous peoples' land rights.
The bill proposed to enshrine a legal theory that argues the date Brazil's Constitution was promulgated — Oct. 5, 1988 — should be the deadline for when Indigenous peoples already had to be physically occupying land or be legally fighting to reoccupy territory.
That legal theory was rejected by Brazil's Supreme Court in September. A week later, the Senate — dominated by conservative lawmakers backed by Brazil's powerful agribusiness — approved the bill on a vote of 43 in favor and 21 against.
Friday was the deadline for Lula to act if he wanted to block all or parts of the legislation.
"Today I vetoed several articles (of the legislation) … in accordance with the Supreme Court's decision on the subject. Let's talk and keep working so that we continue to have, as we do today, legal security and also respect for the rights of the original people," Lula said on social media.
Backers of the legislation said it was needed to provide legal security to landowners, saying there is discomfort in rural areas due to a perceived lack of limits to the expansion of Indigenous territories.
Indigenous rights groups argue the concept of the deadline is unfair because it does not account for expulsions and forced displacements of Indigenous populations, particularly during Brazil's two-decade military dictatorship.
Lula vetoed all references to the deadline theory and other provisions deemed harmful to Indigenous rights, such as allowing mining and the cultivation of genetically modified organisms.
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