Brazil’s new far-right government issues decrees across sectors – Indigenous land claims handed over to Agriculture Ministry

Desdemona Despair

By Anthony Boadle
2 January 2019

BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil’s new President Jair Bolsonaro set to work quickly on Wednesday, with his administration issuing decrees affecting the economy, agriculture and society, while forging closer political ties with the United States.

Bolsonaro, a former army captain and seven-term congressman, won elections in October and was sworn in on Tuesday as Brazil’s first far-right president since a military dictatorship gave way to civilian rule in 1985.

Fulfilling a campaign promise to his staunch supporters in the farm sector, Bolsonaro decreed that indigenous land claims, a source of bloody clashes on Brazil’s agricultural frontier, would be decided by the Agriculture Ministry.

The gift to the powerful agribusiness sector enraged environmentalists already worried by Bolsonaro’s plans to loosen protections of the Amazon rainforest and remove Brazil’s support for the Paris Agreement on climate change. […]

Bolsonaro’s vow to follow Trump’s example and pull Brazil out of the Paris climate change agreement has worried environmentalists. So have his plans to build hydroelectric dams in the Amazon and open up to mining the reservations of indigenous peoples who are seen as the last custodians of the world’s biggest forest. [more]

Brazil’s new far-right government issues decrees across sectors