SAO PAULO — For nearly a week, hundreds of Indigenous demonstrators have maintained a blockade at a Cargill agricultural facility in Santarem, northern Brazil, escalating tensions over President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s controversial August decree. The presidential mandate authorizes private concessions for federal waterways, transferring maintenance, dredging, and traffic management responsibilities to corporate operators.
The Tapajos and Arapiuns Indigenous Council, representing fourteen distinct Indigenous communities, asserts that the government violated constitutional and international obligations by failing to conduct mandated consultations with affected populations. Protest organizers warn that extensive dredging operations would critically endanger the ecological balance of the Tapajos River, Indigenous territories, and the broader Amazon rainforest ecosystem.
Indigenous leader Auricelia Arapiun articulated the movement’s demands: ‘We seek governmental recognition of their error and respect for our rights, including commitments made during COP30.’ Referencing last year’s UN climate conference in Belem—located approximately 550 miles from the protest site—Arapiun emphasized the contradiction between environmental rhetoric and policy implementation.
Protesters strategically targeted Cargill, one of the world’s largest agricultural commodity traders, as symbolic of destructive agribusiness practices that pressure governments for rainforest-compromising projects. The demonstration has effectively obstructed vehicle access to Cargill’s terminal, though the company maintains the dispute falls outside its jurisdiction despite respecting protest rights.
Brazil’s Secretariat-General of the Presidency, responsible for social movement dialogue, claims commitment to free and prior consultation processes regarding Tapajos waterway concessions. While acknowledging meetings with civil society representatives, government officials have not confirmed attendance at the scheduled in-person assembly with protesters.
Policy analyst Renata Utsunomiya of the Infrastructure and Socioenvironmental Justice group contextualized the waterway developments within broader Amazon infrastructure initiatives. The Tapajos River currently facilitates approximately 41 million metric tons of annual cargo transportation. Utsunomiya warned that combined dredging operations and the proposed Ferrograo railway would amplify pressure on Indigenous territories, potentially accelerating deforestation, land grabbing, and lasting environmental degradation throughout the region.
