Brazil Court Orders Government to Provide Transportation for Indigenous Voters

A federal court in Brazil's Para state ordered the government on Thursday to ensure Indigenous people nationwide can vote in Sunday’s presidential runoff, citing the potential for geographic distance and lack of transportation to impede access to the polls.

The ruling addressed a request filed by federal prosecutors, which sought free transportation by river, land, or air, along with funding for food, interpreters, and culturally relevant signage in Indigenous languages at polling stations.

The lawsuit highlighted allegations from Indigenous communities across Brazil, including claims that some municipal governments withheld transportation for political reasons and that ranchers prevented Indigenous workers from leaving farms to vote. This is particularly critical for the upcoming runoff between leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and his far-right challenger, Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, a son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, who have notably different approaches to protecting the Amazon.

The Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (Apib) also announced Thursday it had filed an urgent request for electoral officials to expedite assistance for Indigenous people needing to reach voting centers. Apib stated that the most significant challenges involve 43 Indigenous communities located deep within the Amazon jungle in northern Brazil.

Last Tuesday, the Amazonas state electoral court rejected a petition for transportation assistance filed by Univaja, an association representing Indigenous peoples of the Javari Valley. Some of these voters reside as far as 895 kilometers (556 miles) from their designated polling places, with travel by boat sometimes requiring three to five days.

Officials noted that military aircraft are necessary to transport voting machines and election workers to some remote locations. "The state brings the ballot box to the forest but does not bring the voter to the ballot box," Apib stated.

In 2014, villages in the Javari Valley territory received their first voting centers, a development aided by the efforts of Bruno Pereira, an Indigenous expert who was killed in 2022 while on assignment in the Javari Valley alongside British journalist Dom Phillips.

The Brazilian government’s Indigenous affairs agency, Funai, confirmed it had consulted with communities regarding transportation needs for the runoff but indicated that state electoral authorities are responsible for arranging such logistics. Protecting Indigenous territories is widely considered a crucial strategy for curbing deforestation in the Amazon, the world’s largest rainforest and a significant regulator of global climate. Researchers warn that continued forest loss could accelerate global warming. A 2022 analysis by MapBiomas found that Indigenous territories in Brazil lost only 1% of their native vegetation over three decades, in contrast to the 20% lost on private land nationwide.