Move to replace Brazil’s indigenous affairs agency Funai
May 17, 2017
A congressional commission in Brazil led by a powerful farming lobby has recommended dismantling the country’s indigenous rights agency, Funai.
It said the agency currently run by anthropologists should be replaced with one controlled by the justice ministry.
The panel also said about 80 Funai officials should be prosecuted for backing what it considered illegal land claims by indigenous groups.
Critics said the move was an attack on indigenous rights by the farming lobby.
They said the reform would leave indigenous tribes unprotected as farmers were trying to move further into the Amazon rainforest.
