Brazil's newly-named Minister of Indigenous Peoples Sonia Guajajara attends a meeting where Brazil's President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva announced the ministers for his incoming government, in Brasilia, Brazil, Thursday, Dec. 29, 2022.
She is widely known as the leader of the main umbrella group for Brazil’s many Indigenous tribes and is a member of the Amazon Guajajara.
“It is a collective achievement of the Indigenous peoples, a historic moment of reparation in Brazil.”
Outgoing president Jair Bolsonaro, defeated in October, is an opponent of Indigenous rights and land with a record of racist statements.
According to local Indigenous organizations, some 20,000 illegal gold miners now operate illegally in Yanomami tribal territory alone.
An organization of officials who work in Indigenous affairs also congratulated the future minister and the Indigenous social movement in general for the nomination.
The lands where Brazil’s Indigenous peoples live constitute one of the world’s most important carbon sinks. »
