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1-Dom Roque Paloschi, president of the Indigenous Missionary Council (Cimi) and archbishop of Porto Velho (RO), has been suffering attacks in retaliation for his denunciations of violations of the rights of indigenous peoples


2-Living in the Amazon defending the socio-environmental agenda has always involved many risks, but, according to the religious, in the last four years the situation has worsened; the period coincides with that of the Jair Bolsonaro government.


3-In 2021, 355 cases of violence against indigenous people were registered — the highest number since 2013, according to a Cimi report.


The target of pressure and intimidation even during the celebration of his masses, Dom Roque Paloschi faces a double challenge as a religious leader who defends indigenous rights in scenarios of advancing environmental degradation and violence against traditional communities in the Amazon.


In addition to being president of the Indigenous Missionary Council ( Cimi ), a body of the Catholic Church linked to the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil ( CNBB ), since 2015 he has been archbishop of Porto Velho, capital of the state of Rondônia, one of the most deforested and pressured areas in the region. . He also acts as secretary of the Pan-Amazonian Ecclesial Network ( Repam-Brasil ).


The challenges experienced for some time by Paloschi gained a pedagogical illustration in the face of the most recent episodes of intimidation suffered by the Archbishop of Aparecida (São Paulo), Dom Orlando Brandes, on October 12th. He celebrated a mass in honor of Nossa Senhora Aparecida, patron saint of Brazil and, as is customary on this religious date of national importance, he reflected on the challenges that impact the most vulnerable populations. Given the current context, he also drew the attention of the faithful to the increase in violence in the country.


The difference is that this year's celebrations were attended by President Jair Bolsonaro, as well as other members of his government, accompanied by numerous followers, who starred in scenes of religious disrespect and aggression towards journalists. They did not like the criticisms heard during the archbishop's sermon , among which, that "a beloved homeland is not an armed homeland", a reference to the government's slogan and the defense of the civilian population 's arms , which has grown under the current administration. federal. The Archbishop of Aparecida also defended the rights of black and indigenous populations and fought hate campaigns and misinformation. Since then, reports of attacks suffered by various religious leaders in the country have increased.


Dom Roque's interview with Mongabay took place before October 12th, but many details of his report on everyday pressures, such as the attempt to restrict his speeches during masses and the attacks he suffered on social networks for his critical positions, have similarities with the problems that other religious are facing in the current scenario of instability and political polarization in Brazil.



Defending the Amazon involves risks

The president of Cimi reports that he suffers countless intimidations in Rondônia, with attitudes and pronouncements that make clear the intention of the provocateurs to cause emotional and psychological pressure. Each mass celebrated and other religious commitments made have posed challenges for this religious leader from Rio Grande do Sul, who graduated in Philosophy from the Catholic University of Pelotas and in Theology from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul.


The situation is no different from the dilemmas he faced in Roraima, as an active bishop in Boa Vista between 2005 and 2015, but recently it has gained more worrying repercussions, according to his assessment.


“We live in this region and are marked by attitudes of those who are against not only the indigenous question but the question of the rights of the poor. We live driven by this economy of destruction. And the traditional inhabitants are not seen as subjects, but simply as obstacles to the so-called development”, says Dom Roque.


The daily pressures suffered by the archbishop of Porto Velho are the result of his critical positions. He has led complaints about violations of rights against indigenous peoples and territories in the 2017 , 2018 and 2019 CNBB assemblies . He has also positioned himself in other national and international forums, including the Vatican, where he has already shared the problem with Pope Francis in the company of other bishops active in the Amazon.


He recalls that when he arrived in Roraima, in 2005, the Raposa Serra do Sol Indigenous Land had just been approved. “The questions were very big there. I remember that the communities had to wait almost six months to be able to celebrate the homologation to avoid tensions”, he says.


In this TI, inhabited by peoples such as the Macuxi and the Wapichana, there was an intense clash between indigenous communities and rice farmers who occupied traditional territories and had to close down their activities as a result of the official demarcation. More recently, tensions have been provoked in actions of indigenous resistance against gold mining .


“This is the context of living the episcopal ministry here. This is the scenario of the North region, where indigenous peoples, quilombolas, riverside people, men and women of the forests are ignored. Above all, currently, the invaders feel authorized by the speeches of the president himself and most of his ministers”, opines the archbishop.


Dom Roque points out that, given the scenario of insecurity he faces, he made a personal decision not to travel alone by car through the interior of Rondônia. He says he prefers to get around by bus, as a way to avoid accidents, among other situations that happen in the region. “Many leaders have already been mowed down by accidents when moving along the roads and many times these accidents were caused”, he denounces.



Questions about ideological bias of sermons

Pressures usually happen at the beginning of Mass celebrations. The archbishop reports that there are people who come up and throw intimidating phrases in an attempt to control what he has to say during sermons. “They signal that anything, or any word out of the expected, can become a reason for rebellion, attitudes and manifestations”, he observes.


Questions about the ideological bias of his speeches are frequent, according to the religious who maintains a critical position in meetings with the faithful. “When I ask why this poor man has no food or why he is thrown out, they call me a communist. This has already been the reason for demonstrations on social networks, ”he adds.


“When you talk about the pope's position in relation to indigenous peoples, there is another dilemma”, observes Dom Roque. The topic has been increasingly addressed in the Vatican, where Pope Francis has also taken a critical stance. So much so that this year he appointed the Archbishop of Manaus, Dom Leonardo Steiner, as the first cardinal of the Amazon .


On November 3, CNBB released the documentary  A Carta in Brazil , one month after its release in the Vatican. In this production, inspired by Pope Francis' Encyclical Laudato Si', the leader of the Catholic Church dialogues with five protagonists about humanity's ability to stop the global ecological crisis, among which is chief Dadá Borari, of the Maró Indigenous People, from Pará


Regarding the report “Violence Against Indigenous Peoples in Brazil – data for 2021” , released in August by Cimi, he argues that the data reveal “a sad and shameful picture” of the country. However, he highlights the importance of widely disseminating the national reality. “We do this so that society is aware of how the Brazilian State treats the first inhabitants of these lands”, he analyzes.


The report indicates that in 2021 there were 355 cases of violence against indigenous people, the highest number recorded since 2013. The three states with the highest number of murders (176 records in the year) were Amazonas (38), Mato Grosso do Sul (35) and Roraima (32), which also led these statistics in 2019 and 2020.


“The numbers are showing that after 2018, starting with the current Federal Government, things only got worse. Not only in this scenario of denial of constitutional rights. They also got worse because of the violence, which became more and more intense, and because of the perceived cruelty”, says Dom Roque. One example mentioned by him is the murder of the indigenist Bruno Pereira and the English journalist Dom Phillips , in June, in the Javari Valley, in the Amazon. The case gained international repercussions, revealing the absence of government action in that region, which remains at the mercy of organized crime.


Faced with this scenario, the president of Repam-Brasil, Dom Evaristo Pascoal Spengler, sent a  letter  to the president-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and to the transition team, on November 11, stating that he “welcomes with great hope the idea of ​​a Coordination of Policies for the Amazon”, focusing on solutions for the regional reality.



Accompaniment of the Karipuna people in Brasilia

As president of Cimi, Dom Roque was in Brasília in September, accompanying leaders of the Karipuna indigenous people on a visit to the embassies of several countries, where they went to denounce the violence provoked by invaders of their territories, in Rondônia, and ask for support to solve the pressures faced . He recalls that, in the 1970s, these people were at risk of being exterminated after the risky integration proposed by Funai, as there were only eight remaining. With the demarcation process of this Karipuna Indigenous Land , in 1988, there was a population recovery to 61 inhabitants


“But, currently, this Indigenous Land, which should be protected, is devastated, allotted and is not supported by any public agency, not even Funai [National Indian Foundation]”, he denounces. As Dom Roque argues, these people are asking for nothing more than compliance with the 1988 Brazilian Constitution. “And those who side with them are taxed on everything,” he says. In the embassies visited, the priest reports that there was a respectful and warm reception to the delegation of the Karipuna people, while in the environments of federal public management he assesses that there was a lack of attention and a sense of priority to the demands presented.


Even in the face of pressure and intimidation faced in his daily life, Dom Roque claims not to participate in any official protection program. “I think that we cannot bend before threats”, he opines. But he reiterates that he takes some precautions to avoid personal risks and situations that stir up tempers, as well as direct or indirect confrontations. As examples, he mentions that, in addition to paying extra attention to the itineraries traveled in the capital, or outside it, he never discusses it on social networks or responds to provocations in any type of media. “It's not just to avoid conflict. So we don't promote these people either”, he analyzes.



People decimated by the economy of death

Dom Roque reiterates that the majority of indigenous peoples have already been decimated in Brazil and that we still have groups in the country that are struggling to survive, as is the case with the Karipuna ethnic group. “Their right is to enjoy their territories. But [invaders] continue to plunder, even the already demarcated Indigenous Lands. In the entire North region, especially, this violence is increasingly being fed back by the greed of the economy of death ”, he opines.


The priest considers that this scenario of violence is intensifying because, in addition to the dismantling of public policies , there has historically been a mistaken mentality in the country. “We are a prejudiced, discriminatory country that continues to look at indigenous peoples as if they were not people. Here, this first right of recognition of otherness is denied. There are many people also suffering from the slowness of the Judiciary. Cases go on for years and years. And we are now almost entering a route of uncertainty regarding the timeframe ”.


Despite the risk of legal uncertainty involving this agenda, whose judgment has been postponed, Dom Roque claims that Cimi is confident that “the Federal Supreme Court will promote the recognition of rights and avoid this thesis of the temporal framework [which would change the demarcation policy, recognizing rights only for ILs occupied until October 5, 1988, date of enactment of the Federal Constitution].”


Regarding possible solutions for Brazil to recover its protagonism on the international stage, the priest points out that “it is necessary to let the indigenous peoples live in their own way and be who they are”. And he reaffirms the critical position: “What kind of development is this that destroys biomes to concentrate wealth in the hands of a few and that produces to export large amounts of food, while we have so many people clamoring for a piece of bread?”.


The Cimi president's critical sense also involves other questions about Brazilian political-institutional trends. “And what country is this that signs international conventions and agreements, such as Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization (ILO) [which protects indigenous rights, including that of being consulted in the case of undertakings that impact their territories and ways of life], to later not be fulfilled or respected?”. And he concludes: “What country is this where, suddenly, the public policies of the State are at the behest of the government of the hour?”.