Terras indígenas e fronteiras nacionais: um estudo jurídico sobre as territorialidades indígenas na faixa de fronteira da Amazônia brasileira

Abstract

The present work aims analyzing the recurrent debate about the delimitation of indigenous lands located on the borderline zone in Brazilian Amazon. Several speeches tend to relativize the indigenous rights over the traditionally occupied lands, especially those lands which are located in areas of frontier with other countries of South America and which are object of specific territoriality of various indigenous peoples which occupy those regions. One of the issues which is more frequently used do raise questions to the recognition of the indigenous lands situated in such areas is the fact that it deals with extensive territories with very reduced demographic density, which represents a risk to national safety and sovereignty. This study makes a historical contextualization of indigenous territorial rights and demonstrates that, even nowadays, with the humanist treatment brought by the Constitution in what concerns to the indigenous rights over the traditionally occupied lands, the contradiction between what is predicted in the legislation and State`s interest in implementing it is flagrant. It also aims analyzing the process of consolidation of national frontiers and the building of modern State, in order to demonstrate that the indigenous peoples were extremely important for the constitution of the borders which hold Brazil currently, as well as showing that the indigenous territoriality are note compatible with the “territory” category which rigid framing, characteristic of the modern State, does not fit the concept of specific territoriality of the different indigenous peoples which form Brazilian social plurality. In the end, it is concluded that the Brazilian state should necessarily recognize the original rights of the indigenous peoples, specially, indigenous territorial rights on the borderline, since its territoriality do not take into account political borders of the states, because in the indigenous conception, these borders, most of the time, transcend the legal and political category of the national territory.