Brazilian police stop Indians from storming Congress

BRASILIA,  (Reuters) – Brazilian police used pepper spray to stop hundreds of protesting Indians from storming Congress yesterday, clamping down on the second day of indigenous rights marches.

Tribes across Brazil blocked highways and occupied government offices to oppose what they see as a steady undermining of their rights to ancestral lands by farmers supported by politicians in disputes that have occasionally turned violent.

“We have lost lots of land and they want to take away what we have left,” said Mayalo Txucarramae, a young Kayapo leader from the Xingo reservation in Mato Grosso state, one of about 1,000 indigenous demonstrators camped out in front of Congress.

Indians wearing headdresses and body paint and carrying spears, bows and arrows expressed their anger in war dances outside ministry buildings in Brazil’s capital and then tried to invade Congress, before being stopped by police.

During a similar protest in April, members of some 70 tribes barged into the lower house of Congress, delaying a debate on indigenous policy. Brazilian police, who have faced bouts of social unrest since the country experienced massive protests in June against corruption and poor government services, were less permissive this time.

But the deputy speaker of the lower chamber of Congress, Andre Vargas, agreed to meet with a delegation of Indians, including the Kayapo leader, and vowed to try to stop a constitutional amendment from reaching the floor that would weaken native land rights.