Genocide of Indigenous peoples in Brazil

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The genocide of indigenous peoples in Brazil began with the Portuguese colonization of the Americas, when Pedro Álvares Cabral made landfall in what is now the country of Brazil in 1500.^[1] This started the process that led to the depopulation of the indigenous peoples in Brazil, because of disease and violent treatment by Portuguese settlers, and their gradual replacement with colonists from Europe and enslaved peoples from Africa. This process has been described as a genocide, and continues into the modern era with the ongoing destruction of indigenous peoples of the Amazonian region.^[2][3]

Over eighty indigenous tribes were destroyed between 1900 and 1957, and the overall indigenous population declined by over eighty percent, from over one million to around two hundred thousand.^[4] The 1988 Brazilian Constitution recognises indigenous peoples' right to pursue their traditional ways of life and to the permanent and exclusive possession of their "traditional lands", which are demarcated as Indigenous Territories.^[5] In practice, however, Brazil's indigenous people still face a number of external threats and challenges to their continued existence and cultural heritage.^[6] The process of demarcation is slow—often involving protracted legal battles—and FUNAI do not have sufficient resources to enforce the legal protection on indigenous land.^[7][8][6]

Since the 1980s there has been an increase in the exploitation of the Amazon Rainforest for mining, logging and cattle ranching, posing a severe threat to the region's indigenous population. Settlers illegally encroaching on indigenous land continue to destroy the environment necessary for indigenous peoples' traditional ways of life, provoke violent confrontations and spread disease.^[6] Peoples such as the Akuntsu and Kanoê have been brought to the brink of extinction within the last three decades.^[9][10] On 13 November 2012, the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB) submitted to the United Nations a human rights document with complaints about new proposed laws in Brazil that would further undermine their rights if approved.^[11]

Several non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have been formed due to the ongoing persecution of the indigenous peoples in Brazil, and international pressure has been brought to bear on the state after the release of the Figueiredo Report which documented massive human rights violations.^[12]

The abuses have been described as genocide, ethnocide and cultural genocide.^[13]