Brazil’s justice ministry has awarded President Jair Bolsonaro the nation’s “medal of Indigenous merit,” drawing sharp criticism from Indigenous leaders who have long accused the far-right leader of promoting policies that have harmed their communities. Justice Minister Anderson Torres awarded the medal to Bolsonaro and 25 other honorees on Wednesday “in recognition of their significant altruistic service for the well-being, protection, and defense of indigenous communities,” said a decree published in the official gazette. Torres also granted the medal to himself, Agriculture Minister Tereza Cristina, Infrastructure Minister Tarcisio Gomes, and Defense Minister Walter Braga Netto.
Indigenous leaders and their allies have accused Bolsonaro of trying to force Indigenous peoples in Brazil from their lands, by promoting environmental destruction and allowing rampant deforestation in the Amazon rainforest, home to many Indigenous groups. “Absurd,” tweeted Sonia Guajajara, national coordinator of the Association of Brazil’s Indigenous Peoples, about Wednesday’s decision. “As if all the reversals we’ve had weren’t enough, this barbaric dis-government has now added another: a medal of merit for Jair Bolsonaro and his allies for their ‘significant’ services to Indigenous peoples,” said Guajajara, adding that her organization would go to court to block the decree. The Congressional Environmental Front, a legislative bloc often opposed to Bolsonaro, said its leader, lower-house deputy Alessandro Molon, had filed a motion in Congress to annul the decree.
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