Brasilia, April 20 (RHC)--The President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, signed this Thursday a decree demarcating two indigenous lands: Aldeia Velha, located in the Brazilian state of Bahia, with an area of 20 square kilometers, and Caçique Fontoura, in Mato Grosso, with 320 square kilometers.

At the event, held at the headquarters of the Ministry of Justice and Public Security, the president also participated in the reopening of the National Council of Indigenous Policy (CNPI), whose objective is to articulate, support and propose the official indigenous policy.

As a result of the laws, published this Friday in the Official Gazette of the Union (DOU), Brazil now has 528 authorized and reserved Indigenous Lands, reaching a total of 108,075,186 hectares.

According to Lula da Silva, the decision to ratify only two Indigenous Lands out of the six that were being announced arose to avoid future problems such as the judicialization of processes.  In this sense, he regretted the postponement of the approval of the other four because they are occupied by large and small farmers.

If there are people who are illegally occupying these lands, we will try to find a solution, either negotiated by the governors or by the courts", he stated.

The Brazilian president also defended the extension of the indigenous reserves and considered that the extension is still insufficient considering that the native peoples owned "one hundred percent of the lands before the arrival of the Portuguese".

These new indigenous lands approved, belonging to the Pataxó and Iny Karajá peoples, will be added to the eight reserves approved in the first year of Lula's third term in office.

This Friday, Brazil commemorated the Day of Indigenous Peoples with the purpose of celebrating the diversity of these cultures, as well as making visible the need for public policies that guarantee their rights.