Indigenous groups gathering in Brazil’s capital to protest president’s land grant decisions WSB-TV Channel 2 [Video]

BRASILIA, Brazil — (AP) — Thousands of Indigenous people began gathering in Brazil’s capital on Monday for what was expected to become a protest against President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s unfulfilled promises to create reserves and expel illegal miners and land-grabbers from their territories.

Holding Lula’s government to account appeared to be the focus of this year’s 20th Free Land Camp, an annual weeklong encampment of Indigenous people in Brasilia.

Last week, Lula created two new reserves, far from the six his government had promised for April. During the announcement, he acknowledged that “some of our friends” would be frustrated. He added that the delay in naming other reserves was at the behest of state governors and that it was necessary to find new areas for about 800 non-Indigenous peoples who would eventually be displaced upon defining the new reserves.

“Enough of lawful genocide! Our rights cannot be negotiated, …