The Latin American Report # 640

Indigenous people of the Munduruku ethnicity blocked the main entrance of the venue hosting the COP30 in Belem, Brazil, for an hour and a half, in a protest act to assert their demands and denounce the separation between the latter and the "high-level" dialogue led by political leaders. The indigenous people were demanding a meeting with the head of the Palácio do Planalto, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, to explicitly state their rejection of being sacrificed along with their lands for the benefit of agribusiness. "Our forest is not for sale. We are the ones who protect the climate, and the Amazon cannot continue to be destroyed to enrich large corporations," reads a statement released by the Munduruku Ipereg Ayu Movement cited by AP.

Among their requests are the revocation or cancellation of large infrastructure projects, the implementation of —for me quite absurd— deforestation carbon credits, and also a clearer demarcation of their lands. There is a not very well resolved contradiction in Lula when he defends oil exploitation, even near the Amazon, while hosting the COP30 or promoting green energy. He usually responds that the country needs the income related to that industry, and that these revenues would even contribute to the energy transition.

"[I know] that the government wants to drill for oil at the mouth of the Amazon. I know it wants to build a railway to transport products near our lands. I know there is increasing deforestation. And if these bad actions continue, we are going to have problems," an influential nonagenarian indigenous chief warned Lula recently. "We should look at this as a message and signal from Indigenous people, who have not seen any progress over the past 33 years of COP, that all these conversations have not led to actions," defended a climate activist. The protest ended peacefully after the diplomatic intervention of André Corrêa do Lago, the climate talks president.

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Electoral Sunday

Two important electoral processes will take place in the region this Sunday. One of them is the first round of the Chilean presidential election, and I speak of a first round because it is very likely that no candidate will manage to surpass the benchmark required to settle the matter at this time. The communist candidate Jeannette Jara leads the polls, but then would face a very tense scenario heading into a hypothetical runoff in which the far-right, and some sectors of the traditional right, would potentially unite to kick the left out of The Palace of the Mint.

Two ultra-conservatives, one of them Milei-type, are competing for second place, while the economy and security are the major issues that will mark the vote. Meanwhile, in Ecuador, a referendum promoted by President Daniel Noboa will be held to decide on convening a Constituent Assembly, the elimination of the constitutional restriction on the installation of foreign military bases—as part of the strategy to combat organized crime—and also on public financing for political parties, and finally, the reduction of the size of the legislative branch.

This is all for today’s report.