Brazil general with mining link takes over indigenous agency

Belo Sun Mining

17/01/2019 19:54

By Anthony Boadle
    BRASILIA, Jan 17 (Reuters) - A retired Army officer who last
year advised a Canadian company seeking to mine gold in the
Amazon returned to the head of Brazil's indigenous rights agency
on Thursday, vowing to improve the lives of the country's native
peoples.
    General Franklimberg Ribeiro de Freitas had run the National
Indian Foundation (Funai) until April 2018, but was fired by the
previous government under pressure from farmers who considered
him too sympathetic to the land rights of indigenous tribes.
    He returns to Funai at a crucial time for the agency, which
has lost funding and authority on land issues now settled by the
farmer-friendly Ministry of Agriculture under Brazil's new
right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro.
    A respected military officer of native descent, Freitas has
served in the Amazon rainforest on operations aimed at reducing
deforestation by evicting illegal loggers and miners from vast
reservations, such as the Yanomami territory.
    "Our indigenous policy must be strengthened and our sole aim
will be to improve the conditions and support we give native
peoples," Freitas said on taking office at the Funai.
    Brazil's 890,000 indigenous people from 300 tribes make up
less than 1 percent of the population and live on reservation
lands that cover 12 percent of its territory. Much of that land
is threatened by illegal loggers and miners, along with pressure
from an agricultural frontier advancing into the Amazon jungle.
    On the campaign trail last year, Bolsonaro said he would not
grant "one centimeter" more of land to indigenous peoples, whom
he vowed to integrate into Brazilian society by engaging them in
commercial activities and earning royalties from mining
companies that would be allowed into reservations. 
    Freitas, 62, served last year on an advisory board at Belo
Sun Mining Corp  BSX.TO , a Canadian company with a project on
the on the Xingú river that promises to be Brazil's largest gold
mine. 
    A spokeswoman for the company said its installation license
has been suspended pending a report on the impact on indigenous
communities adjacent to the planned open-pit mine. The general
left the company at his own request in December, she said.
    Freitas gained respect from subordinates during his first
tenure at Funai by working to improve the quality of life for
native tribes by helping them produce goods and forest crops
that could be sold, agency employees said.
    He appears to share Bolsonaro's view on integrating native
peoples that are already in contact with Brazilian society,
while insisting on the need to protect and shield uncontacted or
recently contacted tribes.
    Anthropologists oppose integration in order to preserve
native cultures and languages. Environmentalists say the tribes
are the last guardians of the rainforest and opening their lands
to commercial activity will speed deforestation of the Amazon.

 (Reporting by Anthony Boadle
Editing by Brad Haynes and Bill Berkrot)
 ((anthony.boadle@tr.com +55 61 98204-1110;  https://twitter.com/anthonyboadle;))