Brazilian Court Vetoes Appointment of Ex-Missionary as Head of Indigenous Authority

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A Federal Court in Brazil has overturned the appointment of Ricardo Lopes Dias as head of the department for isolated and recently contacted tribes at the indigenous agency FUNAI.

The evangelical pastor and anthropologist had been in office since February. This represented a ‘high risk’ for the rights of indigenous peoples, according to the ruling.

The court is thereby complying with a petition by the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, which had pointed out the danger of genocide against voluntarily isolated communities through Lopes Dias’ religious missionary approach.

Lopes Dias worked for the “New Tribal Groups Mission of Brazil” (Missão Novas Tribos do Brasil, MNTB, today Ethnos 360) between 1997 and 2007 as a missionary in the Amazon region. The mission, which was founded in the USA and is also active in Germany, is known among indigenous organizations because it forces contact with groups living in isolation and attempts to evangelize them. The MNTB has also been associated with epidemics that wiped out the Zo’é peoples in 1982.

“The appointment of an official to promote the activities of a missionary organization of this kind poses a high risk to the policies of non-contact with the communities and to the respect for the voluntary isolation of these peoples,” stressed judge Antonio Souza Prudente.

Moreover, Lopes Dias failed to meet the legal requirements for the post, the court ruled, while reversing an amended ordinance from January 29th this year. At that time, Marcelo Augusto Xavier, president of FUNAI, allowed the appointment of non-agency individuals to coordinate isolated indigenous communities.

This requires years of experience and expertise on the topic and knowledge of rainforests, the localization of isolated indigenous communities, and a sensitive approach to the issue.

In October 2019, Bruno Pereira, the person in charge of the project, was removed from office. For 20 years he led the largest expedition to contact isolated indigenous peoples, in part to prevent conflicts between different contacted and isolated ethnic groups.

Pereira worked for nine years for FUNAI, 14 months of which were spent working for the coordination office, and also fought against illegal mining. He is considered by indigenous leaders to be highly qualified for this task. According to FUNAI employees, his dismissal was due to pressure from the agricultural lobby associated with the government.

The NGO Survival International describes the court ruling as a ‘ray of hope’. The NGO announced the protests by indigenous organizations against Lopes Dias’ appointment worldwide, and collected signatures of support.