Indigenous rights in Brazil are currently under assault, in ways not seen since the fall of its brutal dictatorship in 1985. Driven by the powerful agribusiness and extractive industries, indigenous peoples and other communities of color are bearing the brunt of these intensifying attacks.

Much like the Trump administration's efforts to dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency, a concerted campaign is being waged to undermine key Brazilian institutions. The federal agency known as FUNAI, or the National Indigenous Foundation, is a principal target.

FUNAI is supposed to protect and promote the rights of Brazil's native peoples, including titling and monitoring their territories. Yet it is precisely this right to ancestral lands – 98.5% of which fall within the Amazon rainforest – that presents an obstacle to Brazil's agribusiness sector. To neutralize FUNAI's efficacy, agribusiness allies have insidiously worked to dismantle the institution, slashing its budget and undermining its ability to fulfill its vital duties.

The effect has crippled FUNAI, deeply compromising its work to defend native lands under constant threat of violent invasion. FUNAI's technical staff, essential public servants committed to its mission, are demoralized. And indigenous land-titling processes have been frozen by a specious legal opinion issued by Brazil's Attorney General. We call on the Office of Brazil's Attorney General to immediately revoke its legal attacks upon this critical institution.

Take action today to resist these attacks against FUNAI!