RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Bolsonaro unleashed this statement at the moment he announced Hamilton Mourão, vice-president of the Republic, as the future head of the Amazon Council.
According to him, the goal is to establish a structure that will serve to “coordinate actions in each ministry aimed at the protection, defense and sustainable development of the Amazon”.
“Mourão will be our great coordinator, at the head of the Amazon Council. He will deal with its protection, defense, prevention, and sustainable development, and logically he will be involved in the issue of indigenous lands,” he said.
Subsequently, Bolsonaro addressed the Minister of Infrastructure, Tarcísio Gomes de Freitas, who served in Manaus (AM).
“So you know, you had contact with the Indians. Almost 13, 14 years have elapsed. Surely, the Indians have changed, they are evolving. More and more the Indians are human beings just like us. So, (we need) to integrate the Indians into society, and to be true to their land. That’s what we want here,” he added.
Quilombolas
This is not the first time Bolsonaro has slighted indigenous peoples and quilombolas (Afro-Brazilian settlement residents). In 2017, during a lecture to 300 people at the Hebraica Club in Rio de Janeiro, he declared that he intended to put an end to all indigenous and quilombola land reserves.
“I went to a quilombo. The lightest Afro-descendant there weighed seven arrobas (105 kilos). They do nothing. I don’t even think they’ re good enough for breeding.”
After using “arrobas” (a measure of weight for cattle) to describe the weight of the quilombolas and to say that they are not suitable for breeding, the president issued a prejudiced statement, this time with regard to indigenous people.