Democracy Now!
“The Amazon Is Not Empty Land”: Indigenous People’s Fight For Life
“Indigenous people in Brazil find themselves in a fight against predatory agribusiness and mining companies who have been land-grabbing and setting fire to the Amazon with little regard for the rights of the people who live there. “Indigenous communities in Brazil are very well organized,” says Maria Luísa Mendonça, director of the Network for Social Justice and Human Rights in Brazil. “They are calling [on] the international community to pay attention.” Indigenous women have organized several mass protests in recent weeks in response to the crisis, at one point occupying a health ministry building as they demanded the government respect indigenous rights in the Amazon. Deforestation has increased dramatically under Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who declared the Amazon open for business when he took office in January 2019.”
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