In an open letter released during the Free Land Camp (Acampamento Terra Livre) demonstration, in Brasília, indigenous organizations accuse the Brazilian Congress of treating the constitutional rights of indigenous people as “bargaining chips” in negotiations with private sectors, particularly agribusiness and mining.

“We condemn the fact that the National Congress functions as a machine of regression, acting as an enemy of [indigenous] peoples, launching daily attacks on our lives, and subjecting our rights to a bargaining table,” the text reads.

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This edition of the rally – referred to as ATL 2026 – is bringing together thousands of indigenous people in Brasília from Sunday, April 5, through April 11.

“They have turned the people’s house into a gambling den. They want to gamble in the National Congress, where our rights become a bargaining chip between lawmakers and private sectors, with national and foreign companies and corporations profiting off our lives,” the letter states.

Signed by the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB), the association organizing the mobilization, and by seven other entities covering the entire national territory, the letter criticizes the executive, legislative, and judicial branches – especially the federal government – for the delay in defining federal territories designated for the exclusive use of indigenous people.

Under the Brazilian Constitution, in effect since 1988, the federal government should have completed the demarcation of indigenous lands within five years of its enactment – i.e., by 1993.

“The timid demarcation of only a few indigenous lands fails to fulfill the political commitment to guarantee all our territories,” the associations point out.

They maintain that the government’s “inaction” has contributed to an atmosphere of insecurity, with rising cases of violence, invasions of recognized, demarcated, or claimed indigenous areas, and the illegal exploitation of natural resources.

“The federal government has an obligation to demarcate and protect indigenous territories and lives, as well as to guarantee free, prior, and informed consultation. We demand concrete action for land regularization, territorial protection, and respect for the autonomy and leadership of our peoples,” the document says.

Indigenous organizations, however, acknowledge progress, such as the creation of the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples and the formal recognition of 20 indigenous areas from January 2023 to November 2025, following a four-year hiatus from 2019 to 2022.

“Indigenous presence in institutional spaces has advanced as a direct result of our struggle,” the groups point out, citing the presence of historic leaders of the movement at the helm of bodies responsible for managing public policies and the growing number of representatives from the community in Congress, state assemblies, and municipal councils.

New Policy

In a statement to Agência Brasil, the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples emphasized that the creation of the ministry in 2023 led to indigenous people assuming strategic and decision-making roles, as the indigenous movement itself has acknowledged.

“The creation of the ministry marked a break from the paternalistic approach that had guided indigenous policy for decades,” the statement says.

Decisions regarding the rights and needs of Brazil’s more than 391 indigenous peoples are now made by individuals who are familiar with and understand their demands and challenges, the ministry states.

Among the key initiatives undertaken over the past four years to guarantee the rights and safety of indigenous people is the official recognition of 20 indigenous territories, equivalent to some 2.5 million hectares of protected land across 11 states, the ministry reports.

Thousands of indigenous protesters from across Brazil are marching this Tuesday (Apr. 7) down Brasília’s Esplanade of Ministries, where a number of government buildings are located, including the National Congress. The demonstration is part of the 22nd edition of the Free Land Camp, an event that began on Sunday (5) and is considered the movement’s largest and most significant mobilization in the country.

Under the scorching sun, representatives from some of the 391 indigenous peoples camped out walked the six kilometers to the National Congress – the main focus of the movement’s criticism. The group accuses the majority of federal representatives and senators of proposing and passing laws that violate the constitutional rights of indigenous peoples, putting their territories and ways of life at risk.

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The demonstrators also accuse lawmakers as well as federal and state officials of yielding to pressure from agribusiness, mining, and large-scale development projects, thereby allowing non-indigenous people to exploit traditional territories for economic gain.

Painted and wearing the traditional attire of their ethnic groups, the protesters carried six large banners bearing the slogans “Congress enemy of the people,” “Our territory is not for sale,” “The future belongs to indigenous peoples,” “The Time Framework is a coup,” “Demarcation is the future,” and “Down with the Time Framework.”

To comply with an agreement with the Federal District’s security forces, the indigenous groups left their bows, arrows, clubs, spears, and blowguns at the camp and occupied three of the six lanes and part of the lawn of the Eixo Monumental, the avenue that cuts through central Brasília from east to west.

“Our march is peaceful, heading toward a Congress that is not peaceful. It is an enemy of indigenous peoples,” said one of the members of the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB), the entity organizing the demonstration.

The Time Framework

A recurring target of criticism from indigenous communities is the Time Framework – a legally established doctrine that holds that indigenous people are only entitled to the territories they occupied in October 1988, when the Brazilian Constitution was enacted.

In 2023, the Supreme Court ruled the Time Framework unconstitutional. Nevertheless, in 2025, the Senate approved a constitutional amendment that imposes the same time limit on indigenous claims for land demarcation.

Since the senators modified the text that the lower house had approved in 2023, the amendment was sent back to federal representatives for reassessment, which has not yet occurred.

Protesters are also demanding that the federal government recognize more indigenous territories.

According to movement leaders, after a four-year period (2019–2022) during which no new areas of traditional occupation were officially recognized, the federal government validated 20 new territories from January 2023 to November 2025.

Brazil’s national indigenous agency Funai reports that the new territories amount to approximately 2.5 million hectares of protected land across 11 states.

“But we continue this struggle, this fight for territorial guarantees,” APIB Executive Coordinator Dinamam Tuxá told Agência Brasil on Sunday (5).

“We have a really high backlog of demarcations and a situation of widespread violence and vulnerability on indigenous lands that no government has managed to overcome. This has been a motivating factor for indigenous people to come to Brasília to stand up for our concerns,” Tuxá said.

He also noted there are currently about 110 new areas under review that have been claimed as federal lands for indigenous use.