Tumultuous World Indigenous Games wraps up in Brazil

Tumultuous World Indigenous Games wraps up in Brazil
Jenny Barchfield, Associated Press
Updated 12:57 pm, Saturday, October 31, 2015


[font size=1]
Photo: Eraldo Peres, AP
Image 1 of 8

Atilinio, an Embara indigenous man from Panama, celebrates winning the canoeing event at the World Indigenous Games in Palmas, Brazil, Saturday, Oct. 31, 2015.
[/font]
PALMAS, Brazil (AP) — The elation of competing athletes filled the air at the World Indigenous Games on Saturday as the nine-day event neared its close after bringing some 2,000 indigenous people from the four corners of the globe to a dusty outpost in central Brazil.

Though the games were billed as a sort of indigenous Olympics, sporting was overshadowed by politics after a committee in the Brazilian Congress approved a controversial land demarcation measure that infuriated many indigenous Brazilians.

. . .

"We see this whole thing (the games) as a tool to pull the wool over our eyes," said Antonio Apinaje, a leader of the Apinaje people who declined to participate despite living in the host state of Tocantins. He said the congressional committee's passage of the land demarcation proposal during the games seemed almost deliberately provocative.

Critics say the proposed amendment, which would give Congress the right to demarcate indigenous lands, would be catastrophic for already beleaguered native people here. The Congress is heavily influenced by the agrobusiness lobby, which has clashed with tribes throughout the country over land.

More:
http://www.chron.com/news/world/article/Tumultuous-World-Indigenous-Games-wraps-up-in-6602521.php