One of the largest Brazilian indigenous leaders, Cacique Caiapó Raoni asked President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva not to authorize the oil exploration on the Equatorial Margin, a coastal region between Rio Grande do Norte and Amapá. The chief pointed out not wanting him and Lula to contradict something and said that “these things, in the way they are,” ensure that there is a less pollution environment.
The request took place on Friday, 4, during a visit by the head of the federal executive to the Piaraçu village in Mato Grosso. At the event were present the Minister of Indigenous Peoples, Sonia Guajajara, Culture, Margareth Menezes, Human Rights, Macaé Evaristo, Environment, Marina Silva, Agriculture, Carlos Fávaro, and Agrarian Development, Paulo Teixeira.
“I know that at the mouth of the Amazon, the Lord is thinking of the oil that is down there. I think not, because these things, in the way they are, guarantee that we have the environment and earth with less pollution and warming,” said Cacique Raoni.
“If this happens, I am also a shaman and I had contact with the spirits who know the risk that we have to continue working in this way to destroy, that we can have very great consequences that we cannot stop,” he added.
In speech, indigenous leadership said he did not want to contradict the president. “I want me and Mr. Lula to do the work that benefits indigenous peoples from Brazil,” he said. The chief said he asked Lula to go to the region three times and, only in the third time, the petista fulfilled the word and made the visit, which happens today.
Raoni also asked Lula to think of his next successor. “It has to be the next President of the Republic to continue with the form of his work of protecting indigenous peoples and our territory to support indigenous peoples,” he said.
