Brazil's Congress Overrides Presidential Veto, Approves Controversial Indigenous Land Law

The law, expected to be challenged in the Supreme Court, could lift protection from over 90 percent of Indigenous lands, threatening the Amazon rainforest.

• Brazil's Congress has approved a law that requires Indigenous people to provide concrete evidence that they occupied the land they claim on Oct. 5, 1988, when the country’s current Constitution was enacted.
• The new law threatens Indigenous people’s rights to most of the land they inhabit or claim, potentially opening vast territories to deforestation, farming and mining.
• President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva vetoed the legislation, but his veto was overridden by the Congress, with many of his own allies joining his opponents in voting to defy him.
• Legal experts expect the law to be challenged in the Supreme Court, and members of Apib, a leading Indigenous rights movement in Brazil, have already prepared a request for the court to review it.
• Advocacy groups say that under the new law, more than 90 percent of these lands could have protection lifted, undermining Mr. Lula’s environmental agenda, including preservation of the Amazon rainforest.

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