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The bombs approaching kyiv somehow resonate deep in the Amazon.

A cause-effect relationship travels thousands of miles and seriously worries indigenous Brazilians, who could see

their lands turned into

open-pit mines under the guise of the crisis in Ukraine.

The origin of the problem is, paradoxically, in the agricultural power of Brazil.

The country is the world's leading food producer, but it is a giant with feet of clay.

The Achilles heel is in the fertilizers

.

Brazil imports 55 million tons every year, and most of them come (or rather came) from Russia.

With the sanctions and the logistical problems due to the war, the government now fears that the fertilizer for the fields will not arrive and endanger the crops.

According to a sectoral association, there is stock for the next three months.

The most critical situation is due to the lack of potassium (Brazil imports 96 percent of what it uses in its plantations).

Now the Government alleges that national sovereignty must be strengthened and depend less on the outside.

The solution would be to allow mining operations in indigenous territories, where this practice has been banned until now.

The government of Jair Bolsonaro has been

trying to pass a law to allow mining

in the indigenous reserves of the jungle for some time, without success so far.

The uncertainty over the Ukraine crisis seems to be the perfect excuse.

"The indigenous people with whom I have spoken are in favor. Others, obviously influenced by NGOs, are against it, but

a considerable part of the indigenous people want to do on their land what an indigenous rancher does on his property

," he said recently. President.

The bill defines specific conditions for the extraction of mineral resources such as gold and iron, as well as hydrocarbons such as oil and natural gas, and for taking advantage of rivers to generate electricity.

The indigenous people fear that with the excuse of fertilizers the door will be opened to all kinds of exploitation.

To this day, the native communities already suffer from illegal mining (the 'garimpo'), which

pollutes the rivers and is one of the main factors of deforestation

.

The deputy Joenia Wapichana, the only indigenous representative in the National Congress of Brazil explained it this way in statements to EL MUNDO: "

It is unjustifiable, absurd, unacceptable.

It is a proposal that goes against the indigenous rights guaranteed in the Constitution. It is the Bolsonaro's project since he stepped foot in the presidential palace. Now that the whole world is aware of the war, they are going to sneak this law into us with the excuse that there will be a lack of fertilizers," he criticized.

Wapichana assures that the debate is false because the main potassium reserves are not even in the Amazon, where most of the indigenous territories are located.

According to a study by the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), if all the areas of probable potassium reserves are considered, only 11 percent of the 13.7 million hectares are in indigenous territories.

"

It would not be necessary to run over our rights to produce fertilizers

", says the deputy.

Despite everything, the Chamber of Deputies gave urgent consideration to the processing of the mining bill, which means that it will not be debated in the pertinent commissions and could be approved within 30 days.

The starting gun was given last week, just when in Brasilia thousands of people,

led by the singer and composer Caetano Veloso, protested against this and other government proposals

that threaten the environment.

The opposition and environmentalists criticize the rush to pass the law, but the government turns a deaf ear and even makes provocative gestures.

This week, the Ministry of Justice

decorated Bolsonaro himself and nine ministers with the Medal of Indigenous Merit

, an award created in 1972 to recognize the main defenders of the indigenous cause.

The coordinator of the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples (APIB), the activist Sonia Guajajara, announced that she will go to court to annul the recognition: "It is

a total insult to the indigenous movement

, to the act for the Land (last week's protest in Brasilia) and everything we are doing to deal with all these evils of the Government", he lamented.

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