Indigenous Peoples Maintain Indefinite Blockade of Cargill on the Tapajós River.
The Indigenous occupation at Cargill’s grain terminal in Santarém entered its 20th day, deepening the movement’s standoff with the Lula administration over plans to dredge the Tapajós and privatize Amazonian rivers. While the federal government announced on Friday that it would suspend Tapajós dredging plans, leaders from the Lower and Middle Tapajós say the protest will continue indefinitely, because the concession provides no concrete guarantee of its definitive cancelation, nor does it address the movement’s core demand: the repeal of Decree 12,600/2025.
Since January 22, the Indigenous mobilization has denounced that the decree was issued without free, prior, and informed consultation, as required by International Labor Organization Convention 169, to which Brazil is a signatory. The decree places stretches of the Tapajós, Madeira, and Tocantins rivers under Brazil’s National Privatization Program (PND), paving the way for the privatization of so-called “navigation maintenance” services, including destructive dredging operations. The communities blockading Cargill’s terminal highlight how the expansion of export infrastructure is imposed on living territories and upon collective rights in the Amazon.
