In the reserve of Umariaçu 2, a village composed mainly of wooden houses with sheet metal roofs, on the border of Peru and Colombia, there is unlimited support for the candidate of the left.
In the municipality of Tabatinga – which encompasses this indigenous reserve – Lula won 66.93% of the votes cast, with Jair Bolsonaro arousing rejection among the natives for his refusal to demarcate new territories in order to preserve their habitats and customs.
“I was very nervous waiting for the result, but when Lula won I was so happy,” Nagela Araújo Elizardo, an indigenous councilor in Tabatinga, told AFP. “I know that Lula will get good things for the state (of Amazonas, north) because he is different from Bolsonaro”.
She places a lot of expectations on the former president (2003-2020), re-elected for a third term. In particular, she hopes that it will improve the lot of the 57 Aboriginal communities in the municipality.
“But the first thing that must change is the presidency of Funai”, the Brazilian government agency for indigenous affairs, whose means and scope of action have been deliberately reduced, according to critics of the current government.
Sebastião Ramos Nogueira, president of the General Council of the Ticuna people of Rio Solimoes, 57, wearing a headdress of yellow and blue feathers, is delighted to have “succeeded in electing our president who had already worked for us during his first and second mandate”.
– “We celebrate” –
Luz Marina Honorato, a 53-year-old Ticuna teacher, says she feels doubly concerned with Lula’s aspirations “for indigenous peoples and for women’s rights.”
In his first speech as president-elect, Lula promised to fight “deforestation”, which has increased by more than 70% during Bolsonaro’s four years in office, according to official statistics.
It was not far from the villages of Umariaçu that the bodies of British journalist Dom Phillips and indigenous activist Bruno Pereira were found, murdered by illegal fishermen on these indigenous lands.
In 2019, it was the Funai anti-poaching officer in the region who was killed in Tabatinga.
In the villages of Umariaçu 1 and 2, where some 12,000 Ticuna Indians live, neighbors gathered to watch the vote count together in front of the small screen.
Concert of horns, flags of the Workers’ Party (PT) of the former union leader, ticuna music, the party was total.
“We suffered for four years and there was no possible way out. Now my community is celebrating,” relishes the president of the General Council of the Ticuna people of Rio Solimoes.
