Transitional Injustice For Indigenous Peoples From Brazil/A (In)Justica de Transicao para os Povos Indigenas no Brasil.
| Autor | Demetrio, Andre |
Introduction
Was it worth it? Was it worth shouting in several languages and conferences and interviews and countries that civilization is sometimes murderous? [...] Forgotten men using bow and arrow are executed in the name of an integration that disintegrates the root of being and living. [...] Noel, you said: A civilization that sacrifices ancient peoples and cultures is an amoral farce. (ANDRADE, Carlos Drummond de., Entre Noel e os Indios, p. 94)
For centuries, indigenous peoples have been annihilated and forced to integrate into Latin American societies. In Brazil, with the colonization by the Portuguese, these peoples were forced to change their traditions and cultures in the name of the Catholicism imposed by Portugal.
Thus, with the emergence of nation-states and the independence of Latin American countries, new legislation emerged dealing with indigenous peoples, but reiterating the need for integration and the end of socio-cultural practices and traditions (MARES, 2001).
With the Brazilian dictatorship that began in 1964, the time period is only a detail for these peoples. As stated by Douglas of the Krenak ethnic group, the dictatorship was for the natives the continuity of something that already existed (BRASIL-2, 2014) and thus should not be understood as a milestone for the beginning of human rights violations.
The Brazilian dictatorship meant the death of at least 8,000 indigenous people (BRASIL-1, 2014) and the beginning of the construction of enterprises that modified the lives of these peoples, such as the construction of the Trans-Amazonian Highway, the idealization of the Belo Monte Hydroelectric Plant, the construction of the Itaipu Hydroelectric Plant, the Perimetral Norte highway, the incarceration and use of indigenous labor, and the sale of indigenous goods, as will be observed in the present study.
In the meantime, transitional justice emerges, a theory responsible for the study of human rights violations that occurred in periods of armed conflicts and/or dictatorships. Transitional justice seeks to articulate mechanisms that offer reparation to all victims of this period through four fundamental axes: the right to memory, the right to the truth, the right to justice, and non-repetition of past events (SOARES, 2017).
The purpose of this article is to draw adequate parameters of reparation to indigenous peoples in Brazil through four axes, the right to memory, to the truth, to justice, and to territory. With the outline of fulfilling the proposed objective, this research was divided into three stages, which will be briefly described. In the first part, the goal is to briefly analyze historical documents that report human rights violations against indigenous peoples during the Brazilian military dictatorship, from 1946 to 1988, the period of the Amnesty Law (Law 6,683, August 28, 1979), and that were used by the National Truth Commission (CNV).
In the second stage, the insertion of indigenous peoples into the transitional justice system, as well as reparation mechanisms, is studied. As a starting point, the criteria of transitional justice applied to the natives are examined, that is, a transitional justice based on a positive and casual historical justice, since the Brazilian dictatorship did not mean the beginning, and much less the end, of the human rights violations imposed on these peoples. This introduction is followed by the analysis of the fundamental rights of indigenous peoples at the international and national levels, such as Convention 169 of the International Labour Organization and Article 231 of the Federal Constitution of 1988. Next, the indissolubility of the ethnic status of indigenous peoples regarding the crimes of the dictatorship is demonstrated through the concepts of genocide and ethnocide. The following point clarifies the importance of the territory, from which all the rights of cultural traditions and the rights of identity of the indigenous peoples originate. The last stage consists of the search for lawsuits that deal with the institute of the timeframe of occupation.
The scientific method used was predominantly deductive. The procedural method was mono-graphic, with the theoretical analysis of transitional justice for indigenous peoples in Brazil, victims of the military dictatorship. Bibliographical, jurisprudential, and legislative research techniques were used.
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Indigenous peoples and the Brazilian dictatorship
Under the apex of its developmental, punitive, and national security policies, (1) the Brazilian dictatorship led to the practice of repression, torture, the annulment of political rights, and the restriction of fundamental rights, thus creating a state of emergency that resulted in numerous human rights violations. Today it is unmistakably known that indigenous peoples were among the greatest victims (2) of this period, having been tortured, imprisoned (in prisons or concentration camps), and used as slave labor (3) (BRASIL-1, 2014).
The effects of several projects carried out by the Brazilian dictatorship from 1964 to 1988 (such as the Trans-Amazonian Highway, the Itaipu Hydroelectric Plant, etc.) on the indigenous peoples are still felt today. In this sense, the Trans-Amazonian Highway (BR-230) meant the forced removal of the Juruna peoples from their territories, which were along the route. The construction of that highway would pass through indigenous territories, forcing many ethnic groups into a coerced withdrawal from their habitats. Topographic studies at the time showed several villages along the highway, but this was not a reason why the project declined according to Afonso Alves da Cruz (BRASIL-1, 2014). Thus, the Trans-Amazonian would expel 29 ethnic groups, including eleven isolated communities and nine with "intermittent contact" (BRASIL-1, p. 209). In order to carry out such a procedure, Funai (the governmental protection agency for indigenous interests and culture) signed an agreement with the Amazonian Development Authority (Sudam) to promote the pacification of 30 indigenous ethnic groups. Thus, the indigenous peoples were removed from their lands (4) (BRASIL-1, 2014).
The construction of indigenous prisons is also verified through the reports of the Krenak people in the state of Minas Gerais. Many indigenous peoples of this ethnic group were imprisoned in a reformatory, located in the city of Resplendor (MG). There was also a prison, which was located in the state of Rio de Janeiro, on Ilha das Cobras. In both places, indigenous peoples were tortured and forced to work as slaves. The prison housed 200 people (BRAZIL-2, 2014). (5)
Thus, one can observe the specificity of the persecution, torture, and death of indigenous peoples during the Brazilian dictatorship. It was mainly economic and agrarian interests that threatened these peoples and expelled them from their lands. Proof of this is found in the testimonies contained in the Final Report of the CNV and the Figueiredo Report, which demonstrate the Brazilian state's interest in the use of these territories for agribusiness (BRASIL-1, 2014).
It should be noted that the indigenous peoples were not passive victims of the crimes suffered during the Brazilian military dictatorship. The idea that these peoples experienced a political vacuum and that they were passive communities "are some of the misunderstandings that still persist in the memory of the dictatorship, which must be faced" (LIMA, PACHECO, 222).
Until the 1988 Federal Constitution, Brazil adopted the integrationist regime for indigenous peoples, making it impossible and denying their right to exist and to live collectively. The indigenous being was seen as something transitory, which would be surpassed and transformed by the state (LIMA, PACHECO, 2017).
Indigenous peoples were considered integrated when they experienced all the compulsions, managing to survive and reach "the twentieth century in the midst of the national population, whose economic life had been incorporated as a reserve of manpower or as specialized producers of certain commodities for commerce" (RIBEIROB, page 235).
The need for the state to "integrate" these peoples is verified in the legislation of the time, such as the Indian Statute, which had as an axis a sub-categorization of the natives ("silvicolas") in "isolated", "intermittent contact", "permanent contact" and "integrated". It left its last and true desideratum blank, the final subcategory--the "assimilated" Indian, the Indian extinguished as an Indian and turned into a "Brazilian": "caboclo", "ribeirinho", rubber tapper, peasant. In short, the Indian that was turned into poor (CASTRO, 2017).
In this way, it was necessary to integrate the indigenous peoples so that they could become Brazilian citizens (CLASTRES, 2017). In this sense,
The first proclaims the hierarchy of cultures: there are those that are inferior and those that are superior. As for the second, it affirms the absolute superiority of the Western culture. Therefore, it can only maintain a relationship of denial with others, and in particular with primitive cultures. But it is a positive denial, in the sense that it wants to suppress the inferior while inferior to raise it to the level of the superior. The "indianity" of the Indian is suppressed to make them a Brazilian citizen (CLASTRES, page 57).
Although the Brazilian military dictatorship did not classify the indigenous peoples as "communists," "subversives," or "enemies of the homeland," the CNV states that in certain situations these peoples were considered "rebels," "hindrances," and "obstacles" because they opposed the state's development policy (LIMA, PACHECO, 2017).
Thus, the crimes briefly described in this section allow us to elucidate and illustrate the fate of the indigenous peoples during the Brazilian military dictatorship. Therefore, the next topic is the analysis of the concept of transitional justice and its implementation for indigenous...
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