RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – President Jair Bolsonaro said on Friday that indigenous people want to produce, but are suffering discrimination from Europeans who refuse to buy their products, in statements given to supporters after arriving from his first trip as head of state to traditional communities in the Amazon.
Bolsonaro reported that during his visit he saw the Bakairi and Kayapo peoples planting and stressed that they want to produce.
“Now they are discriminated against, do you know by whom? By Europeans who don’t buy their product. So, until our people really understand how this game is played, they will keep constantly attacking me, as if I wanted something bad for Brazil. That’s where our independence lies,” he said.
Bolsonaro said he visited three indigenous communities and, once again with no evidence, criticized the actions of organizations in the region.
“Two want to do on their property what the farmer does on the neighboring property, one does not. Obviously, we know exactly what is happening there, the influence of the Indigenous Missionary Council, a foreign NGO,” he said.
For the first time as head of state, the president visited two indigenous lands in the Amazon on Thursday, despite protests from Yanomami leaders against his initiative to free the protected areas for commercial mining.
Surrounded by Army officers and a local indigenous chief, Bolsonaro, wearing a headdress, attended a ritual of the local community in the Balaio Indigenous Land, where he inaugurated a small wooden bridge.