Lula says he will announce the creation of an indigenous university on the 17th

On an agenda at Aldeia Vista Alegre de Capixauã, in Santarém, Pará, this Sunday (2), President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) announced that, by November 17th, he will announce the creation of an indigenous university. “We are going to announce an indigenous university, because we already have an indigenous minister, the indigenous Funai, the head of indigenous health and we lack an indigenous university,” he said.

He stated that the headquarters will be in Brasília, but, in addition to the main course in the federal capital, all states will extend the university “so that girls can take the course close to where they live and not need to go to Brasília”.

Lula and the ministers of Indigenous Peoples and the Environment, Sonia Guajajara and Marina Silva, and the president of the National Foundation of Indigenous Peoples (Funai), Joenia Wapichana, participated in a conversation with chiefs of the Kumaruara people.

Lula made other signals, saying that requests from the village will be analyzed in the areas of health, territorial demarcation, housing (a Minha Oca, Minha Vida program), water and energy. He promised the chiefs that he would put in the lights – “It won’t take long, the Minister of Mines and Energy will come here to talk to you” and said: “There is nothing on the agenda you gave me that we can’t do”.

Demarcation of indigenous lands

Marina highlighted that President Lula appointed the first minister of Indigenous Peoples and the first indigenous president of Funai. The Minister of the Environment defended the demarcation of land by the current administration and also made reference to deforestation, maintaining that the government reduced the problem at a general level, but with more intensity in conservation units.

Lula also made reference to demarcations, saying that it makes him proud that “there is no one who has demarcated more indigenous land than us and there is no one who has made more reservations than us”. “But everything we do is still little, due to the number of years that the people have been forgotten. So we have to run more and more”, he continued.

The head of the Executive criticized other authorities in the federal capital, saying that “the naked truth is that people there in Brasília don’t see you”. He concluded by saying that, for the other rulers of the country, indigenous people “do not exist”. “I came here to say that they not only exist, but they have dignity, character and the needs that all Brazilian people have so that problems can be solved”, he added.

To the assistants who accompanied him on the agenda, Lula joked that they only had four months to serve the village, before leaving the government and running for election.