08/18/22 08/18/22 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> bolsonaro, you believed in your lives. if there is someone possessed by the devil, it is bolsonaro. he is a liar like anyone i've ever seen lie. amy: former president luiz inácio lula da silva has

formally announced his campaign to challenge brazil's far right president jair bolsonaro in october's election. fear is growing bolsonaro might try to stay in office even if he loses. we will get the latest. then we will look at the recent murder of british journalist dom phillips and indigenous researcher bruno pereira and what it says about bolsonaro who once vowed "there won't be one more inch of indigenous reserve." we will speak to indigenous lawyer who just came to washington to talk to lawmakers after helping to lead a searchnd-rescue mission for e two me >> when the president dismantles public policies and public institutions that should serve indigenous rights, when the government persecutes the civil servants whose mandate should be to protect the indigenous

peoples and the policies applied to them, we become more vulnerable. amy: then "the territory," the title of a stunning new documenty lookinat the ruggle othe indenous ople tsave the ld and the brazilianain fort fro illegaettls, farrs, and lockers. >> the forest anrivers a our home. theyive as life. the u-eu-w-wau territory is a barrier against deforestation. amy: much of the footage was filmed by brazilian indigenous activists themselves during the pandemic. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. a p united nations official

has warned fighting in ethiopia's northern to gray region has spawned the worst humanitarian disaster on earth. world health organization, who is originally from tigray, says it threatens the lives of millions. >> i can tell you the humanitarian crisis is more than ukraine. without any exaggeration. and i said it many months ago, maybe the reason is the color of this can of the people in tigray. , go his remarks came as if you nobly and officials called for formal cease-fire agreement to end nearly two years of fighting with separatist were some 6 million people have been largely cut off from the outside world for months, unable to aess food, medicine, and other necessities.

they have called it obvious geisha meant to distract from ongoing fighting. the united nations no -- once the conflict has combined with the worst drought to threaten the lives of 20 million people. in ukraine, a russian missile left dozens injured. video of the aftermath showed rescue workers sifting through the rubble of the building that once housed about 50 people. >> as a result of the midnight hour, we have seven dead and 16 wounded. the result of prerogative. these are the people who were inside the building that survived. also people who were in buildings nearby and sustained varying degrees of injuries. amy: human rights watch has condemned russia's assault on kharkiv, accusing it of indiscriminately firing banned

cluster munitions into populated areas of the city, damaging healthcare facilities and homes. elsewhere, ukraine's military says it struck an ammunition depot near front-line fighting in the kherson region. an advisor to zelenskyy said ukrainian forces had reached a strategic deadlock in war with only minimal russian advances. today the u.n. secretary-general is meeting with president zelenskyy in the western city of lviv they will be joined by president erdogan to discuss ideal to safely exportrain fr black seaports. nald trump's former personal attorney rudy giuliani has testified to a grand jury in atlanta, georgia, as part of a criminal probe into election interference by trump and his supporters. giuliani spent more than six hours at the fulton county courthouse for wednesday's closed-door proceedings after a judge ordered him to comply with a subpoena. prosecutors told giuliani's

lawyers this week he could face criminal charges over efforts to overturn joe biden's win in georgia after the 2020 election. meanwhile, lawyers for georgia republican governor brian kemp have asked a judge to throw out a subpoena ordering him to testify later this month. this comes as donald trump struggles to find criminal defense attorneys who will agree to represent him. "the washington post" reports trump's current legal team includes a florida insurance lawyer who's never had a federal case, a past general counsel for a parking-garage company, and a former host at the far-right one america news network. contributions to donald trump's political action committee have surged since federal agents seized classified documents from trump's mar-a-lago residence. "the washington post" reports trump's pac has sent out over 100 emails railing against the fbi since august 8 raid, netting over $1 million a day at least twice. on wednesday, former vice president mike pence called on republicans to end their attacks on the fbi.

vice pres. pence: the party stands with the men and women who stand on that then blue line at the federal, state, and local level. these attacks on the fbi must stop. calls to defund the fbi are just as wrong as calls to defund the police. amy: mike pence also said he would consider speaking with the house select committee investigating the january 6 attack if he was asked to testify. pence was speaking at a "politics and eggs" breakfast in new hampshire, where speakers often include future presidential candidates. a federal judge has ordered the u.s. pharmacy chains cvs, walgreens, and walmart to pay more than $650 million to two ohio counties over their role in fueling the opioid epidemic. wednesday's ruling follows a federal jury's verdict in november that found the corporations' sale of highly addictivpainkillers caused severe harm to communities and violated ohio's public nuisance laws.

south carolina's supreme court has temporarily blocked enforcement of the state's six-week ban on abortions while a legal challenge to the law proceeds. reproductive rights groups are suing to overturn south carolina's so-called fetal heartbeat law, which bans abortions once electrical activity can be detected in an embryo's cardiac cells, which typically happens around just six eks into a pregnancy. in nth carolina, a federal judge has reinsted that state's ban on abortions after 20 weeks of pregncy. in louisiana, all three clinics that previously offered abortion care have closed their doors and will relocate to other states after the state supreme court ruled friday that a near-total abortion ban can remain in effect across louisiana. meanwhile, a federal court in florida has ordered a 16-year-old orphan to carry her pregnancy to term after she petitioned the court for the right to have an abortion,

testifying that she was "not ready to have a baby." a three-judge panel denied the request, ruling the girl "had not established that she was sufficiently mature to decide whether to terminate her pregnancy." in afghanistan, at least 21 people were killed and 33 wounded in a bombing at a mosque in the capital of kabul. the attack came during evening prayers wednesday. there has been no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but similar bombings in the pa have been claimed by a local affiliate of the islamic state. israi forces raided and closed the officers of seven palestinian civil society rights groups in the occupied west bank on thursday. several of the groups report that soldiers confiscated items and files before leaving behind notices declaring the organizations unlawful. israel designated six out of the seven groups as terrorist organizations in october of last year, a decision met with criticism from both the united nations and international human

rights groups. and with just two weeks remain -- remaining before a pandemic-related pause on federal student loan payments expires, progressive lawmakers and activists are pressing president biden to take sweeping debt cancellation action. today the debt collective is launching "fifty over fifty" today, a coordinated student debt strike by 50 student debtors over the age of fiy committing to go on student debt strike should president biden renege on his promise to cancel student debt. activists are calling for the cancellation of all federal student debt or at least $50,000 per person. this is debt collective activist lystra small-clouden. >> can't pay and we won't pay. although i achieved my academic goals -- within the household, we have accumulated over $30000 in student debt.

that is why i'm joining the 50 over 50 debt strike. collectively hol nearly $6 million in student debt. i am pleading with joe biden, please make things right. cancel all student debt. amy: and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. today we spend the hour looking at brazil, a country at a crossroads. on october 2, voters will head to the polls for one of the world's most important elections of the year. former brazilian president luiz inácio lula da silva is challenging brazil's current far-right president jair bolsonaro. lula is running on a platform to preserve the amazon rain forest, and protect brazil's indigenous community. he is a former union leader who served as president of brazil from 2003 to 2010. during that time, he helped lift tens of millions of brazilians out of poverty.

in 2018, he was jailed on trumped up charges paving the way for bolsonaro selection. lula was eventually freed last year after a brazilian judge annulled all convictions against him. on tuesday, lula held his first campaign rally at a car factory outside of são paulo. lula denounced bolsonaro's handling of the covid-19 pandemic, which has killed nearly 700,000 brazilians. >> bolsonaro, you did not believe in medicine, you believed in your life. if there is someone that is possessed by the devil, it is bolsonaro. he is a liar like i've never seen anyone lie. i want bolsonaro to hear my words. there will be no lies and no fake news that will keep you ruling this country, bolsonaro. we don't want to government that

distributes weapons. we want to government that distributes books. we don't want to government that feeds hate, we want to government that feeds love. amy: that was luiz inácio lula da silva speaking tuesday. while polls show lula in the lead, fear is growing jair bolsonaro may try to steal the election, possibly with help from the brazilian military. on tuesday, bolsonaro formally launched his reelection campaign. >> our country does not want to take steps back. we do not what gender ideology in schools. our country respects life from inception. our country does not want to become an ally to communism and other countries. a country that defends private proper. a country that increasingly preaches its people the freedom to raise their cldren. we're going to talk politics today so tomorw no one will prohibit us from believing in god. amy: to talk more about the

brazilian election, we are joined by michael fox. freelance journalist, former editor of nacla, and host of the new podcast "brazil on fire." fox's most recent piece for nacla is headlined "brazil on fire: democracy and dictatorship." we are reaching him in guatemala , usually he lives in brazil. michael, welcome back to democracy now! in our next segment we are going to talk about the murders of the journalist dom phillips and the indigenous researcher bruno pereira and then talk about a new film about the struggle of the indigenous in the amazon. put this in a broader context of the significance of this week, lula's announcement that he is running for president in the october election, and bolsonaro possibly intimating that he might not leave even if he loses. >> thank you so much, amy for having me back.

this is huge. you are seeing two different visions for brazil. one, lula is pushing about democracy saying we need unity, we need to bring back the country, what we had, many, many years ago, and bolsonaro is obviously pushing a much more authoritarian stance. that is what we have seen the last four years. that is what led in large part to kind of the wild west attitude of the amazon like you're going to be talking about and a little bit where bolsonaro calls for the development of the amazon and we saw this huge uptick in the amount of violence , invasions of indigenous territories, killings and whatnot in that region. this is significanthat we're saying and also important to look at the two places the different candidates went to this week. são paulo where lula was, that is his home base, that is where he got his start as the former union leader back in the 1970's, led the major marches that would

then show the beginning of the end of the dictatorship. and bolsonaro, where he got stabbed about four years ago in the lead up to the candidate -- campaign. bolsonaro had this renewal using this religious language. slick, one of his main groups of support are the evangelicals. his focus on family values and whatnot and bolsonaro saint we can take this country back and that is what many people have been talking about for a long time. they are excited about lula's candidacy. before he was jailed years ago with the idea of coming to some democratic normalcy. amy: you are there outside the jail when he went to prison and when he came out. the significance of being exonerated of all the charges? >> it was huge. we have to put this into context. it wasn't just one conviction

against him. there were roughly two dozen accusations and convictions against him, and they have all been tossed out. it basically shows we had a legal system being used in order to try and take lula and tank the left, take the workers party, and the supreme court came out last year saying the judge, the anticorruption judge, was heralded by many on the right and conservative sectors for attacking corruption across the country. and even the supreme court came out saying he was biased in his convictions. that was largely -- we knew that because of the leaks from the intercept that came out back in june 2019 that showed the judge was actually in connection with prosecutors, was telling the prosecutors what they needed to do and prosecutors were trying to scheme about how to keep the

workers party from coming back to power. it is extremely complicated. this is the history of brazil. very, very important that we see lula back and running. amy: i want to go back to 2018 when we spoke to lula at the time he was running for president. it was right before he was jailed. >> i was not accused of corruption. i was accused because of a lie in a police investigation, a lie in an indictment by the office of the attorney general, and in the judgment of judge moro, because there is only one evidence of my innocence in this entire trial, which my defense counsel explained in a magisterial manner.

amy: at the time he could not run for president. also naro became president. talk about bolsonaro being called the trunk of the tropics, what happened to the endemic, and then what he is talking about for this election, what he is intimating, again, very similar to what we hear former president trump saying. >> extremely similar. look, the pandemic was a disaster in brazil. like you said, almost 700,000 dead. bolsonaro the entire time fought g lockdowns and restrictions. he said everyone just needed to get back to work. basically petaled fake news and conspiracy theories and said he would not wear a mask in public and said it was fine even if he got sick, it wasn't a big deal. even when vaccines came out, many different companies him offering them early and he

refused to buy them and that is part of the reason why there were so many dead. he came out just last year in a senate investigation that accused bolsonaro of nine different crimes regarding the covid pandemic, including crimes against humanity for not protecting indigenous communities enough. of course, the lack of oxygen. when the oxygen ran out, it was a disaster. this is a metaphor, a symbol for what bolsonaro's reality has been across the country where he is been pushing consistently conspiracy theories, lies, and fake news. very, very similar to trump. one thing, amy, that is important to understand, he is not focused on the issues. he doesn't want to talk about inflation or the rising poverty. what he wants to talk about our so-called family values. he wants to talk about issues important to evangelicals, dive into the culture war of good

versus evil and talk about abortion, fighting homosexuality, vetting lgbtq rights. these are issues where bolsonaro believes he can gain support and he basically won the 2018 election because of the evangelical vote. it is important to also remember evangelicals have risen across the country in huge numbers, now make up roughly one third of the population. this is the world's largest catholic country. this is really important for bolsonaro but lula is also fighting back. lula has been bracing the evangelicals more and more. like you heard him say, he said bolsonaro is possessed by the devil. he has tried to use that terminology, to try to push back. amy: do think he can get the military to stop this elecon or to change the results of it? >> amy, this is one of the biggest questions. he has been calling on his people to turn out in the streets on september 7, brazil's

independence day, also the bicentennial independence day. many people are concerned about what is going to happen. is he going to be able to do some kind of january 6 coup moment. the big question is, will the military support him? that is up in the air. the military pushed back at him atimes -- just last year we saw the largest military crisis in 20 or 30 years in brazil because boonaro was asking military officials to do things they did not want to do. the big question is, is he going to try to do something like this? we don't really know what it is going to look like. what i can say is he is going to continue to push his theme of fraud and continue to say they should be doing paper ballots. the last thing he is been saying is military should be filming people aside voting booths to ensure transparency. amy: michael, we have to leave it there. i want to thank you so much for being with us. michael fox, freelance journalist, former editor of nacla, and host of the new

podcast called "brazil on fire." michael fox's wife's grandmother, wife's relatives died of covid. coming up, we look at the death of dom phillips and bruno pereira, speaking with an indigenous lawyer who has just turned from the united states where he was talking to congressmembers. he helped lead a search-and-rescue mission for the two men. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now! i'm amy goodman. we continue to look at brazil, turning to the murders of british journalist dom phillips and the indigenous researcher bruno pereira, who went missing this past june in brazil's javari valley in the amazon rainforest. their remains were found dismembered about two weeks this month police arrested five people linked to the murders and identified a suspect arrested earlier as the leader of an illegal fishing organized crime group in the amazon region. this week a brazilian senate commission investigating the murders recommended a military operation in the javari valley to address the rise in organized crime. well, democracy now!'s juan gonzález and i recently interviewed indigenous lawyer eliesio marubo, who helped to

lead a search and rescue mission after dom phillips and bruno pereira. marubo had just returned to brasilia after visiting washington, d.c., to deliver a letter to secretary of state antony blinken i asked him to begin by describing exactly what he understood hpened to them, his efforts to find them. >> the initial thing we were concerned about, the indigenous organization in the javari region was our commitment to find the bodies, and to understand what had happened. as soon as that had happened,e went to sech for them. so after we had located their remains, the second part of what we went about was to share information that we had collected with the authorities and to demand for an investigation so we could

understand who had committed such horrible things to our companions. and the third part of our action was to really engage in broad action to ask the authorities to do their work, to demand an independent and thorough investigation. and that's why we reached out not only to the brazilian authorities, but also abroad. and that's what i came to do in the u.s. juan: eliesio, could you talk about the -- dom and bruno were working on a book called "how to save the amazon." can you tell us about the javari valley and the people who live there? >> the javari valley is a very important area for brazil. it is the entryway to two other countries. we're in a triple frontier there. there are several social problems there to be faced, mainly the most important of which is security.

our work has focused on safeguarding our communities, especially access to public policies, and also to protect them from non-indigenous ople who have othernterests in our territory. most of the indigenous people in the region have given us the mandate to represent them. so we are an organization that represents all the indigenous peoples living in that region. so the reflection we bring, the problem we bring is, how is brazil taking care of its borders? and how is brazil taking care of its original indigenous people? because we are dying and our

partners are dying, and we're dying in a very abrupt and cruel manner. what we've observed in the region is a deliberate lack of action by the brazilian government, and that has led to the victimization of our peoples, nonprection of our peoples and of our territory in the national and international scenario. this is the great issue and the great dilemma the javari valley. juan: can you describe how life has gotten worse for indigenous people under the current president of brazil jair bolsonaro? >> the losses have been suffered by the whole population, not just by the indigenous population, under this bolsonaro's administration. but the indigenous peoples have suffered more because we are much more dependent on public

policies. when the president dismantles public policies and public institutions that should serve indigenous rights, when the government persecutes its civil servants whose mandate it should be to protect the indigenous peoples and the policies applied to them, we become more vulnerable. and that is why indigenous organizations, and specifically here univaja, have had to take on the role of protection of fundamental rights in our region. i do believe that time will change this. but i don't know how much time we can continue to endure this, how much time we have left before help comes to us. we have so many people who have been murdered. we have many others who are

being threatened. so we don't know how long we'll be able to endure this. amy: eliesio marubo, if you could tell us -- i mean, you are incredibly brave to have launched the investigation into dom and bruno because, of course, what they faced in their murders, as you are explaining, is the threat to so many people in the javari region and the amazon. talk about what you found and if you feel that there's any connection to the highest ranks of the brazilian government right to jair bolsonaro, at least the attitude toward preserving the amazon. >> bolsonaro's omission, in terms of protection in the javari region, has opened wide doors to the presence of organized crime in the region.

and what i did was to give visibility to our region, to the javari valley because we have gone through problems for many decades. i've paid a price, a very high price, for speaking up. and i know i will continue to pay a price. but i am too tired of the persecution we've suffered. i am too tired of just watching the difference between what the policies are and what we actually get. so it was really important to come to the u.s., to go to the u.s. and speak to members of congress. i told them i don't know how long i have left in this life, but it was very important that we could establish this initial dialogue for our cause.

juan: eliesio marubo, i wanted to ask you -- you went to washington. you appealed to the lawmakers here in this country. but to the american public, who doesn'-- many of whom do not know what is going on in brazil, are there major american companies that are directly exploiting the resources of the amaz to the detriment ofhe people of brazil and the indigenous people? and if so, can you name some of those companies? >> so first to say that we have endeavored to establish communication not just with politicians, but with the public in genal, with common people and society as a whole, because we believe that society as a whole should be involved and should care about these issues. what is going on there is a relevant theme for fundamental

rights, namely the right to life. it's important that society is made aware of what is happening in our region in the same way that they're made aware of what's going on in ukraine with the war, in the midd east. they need to know that there is immense suffering in brazil, that we are suffering many losses. and it's brazil, what they say in the international arena, there lies, and we have to bring this information to the public. when you ask about u.s. enterprises in the area, not directly. but we, of course, know that we have illegal wildcat mining in

the area. and there are many tons of gold, for example, that are extracted from our region illegally. and where do they go? they go abroad and they go to the u.s., and they end up in u.s. stores and in u.s. storefronts. so the gold that is decorating someone's arm or someone's earring or is given as a gift, that costs lives. that costs -- it comes with our blood. it comes with our indigenous blood. and also the issue of meat. the meat that ends up in your restaurants is meat that came from the amazon region, with big companies. so the meat that is consumed abroad carries the flesh of indigenous people.

the way it is produced is a way that is harmful to indigenous people. it costs lives, especially in the westernmost part of our region. and i believe we could solve these issues through a concerted, grand conversation between nation-states where we would point out the costs of production of all of these products that leave brazil, and, of course, in an international scenario where we would be able to discuss the importance of preservation and the importance of respect for indigenous lives. amy: that is the brazilian and indigenous lawyer speaking to us from brasília. coming up, new documentary about the indigenous struggle to save the amazon called "the territory." stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now! i'm amy goodman. as former brazilian president luiz inácio lula da silva brazil's far right president jair bolsonaro formally launch their presidential campaigns this week, a new film coming up iday documents the suggle of th indigous uru-eu-wau-wau people in the azilian azon agnst the dortation a destructioof theirand by farms and othersllegally extracting resources. it is called "the territory." is is thtrailer. >> the fest and s records

are our me. th give us lif ureu-wau-w tertory is barrie ainst dorestati. erythi is gone i lieve e amazon --

amy: "the territory" was filmed over three years including jenna pandemic and much was filmed by indigenous activist themselves. this week i sat down with three people. this is alex pritz perseus first film. i asked him to begin by talking about what inspired him to make

"the territory" and why he called it that. >> for me the journey behind "the territory" started when i read about the work of neidinha bandeira, the activist at the center of the film. i had read about her work and felt so inspired by this woman who against all odds and the part of the world where everybody is against her, extremely hostile environment, was proudly standing up in defense of this beautiful planet that we all have. i reached out to her during the campaign, 2018 presidential elections inrazil, when we saw this really divisive, inflammatory rhetoric coming from the bolsonaro campaign is said, it looks like your work is about to become much more difficult really quickly, could i come and meet you in brazil? that is sort of where it began. amy: take us on that journey. tell us the story.

>> for me, she has this gravitational energy and it pulls you right in. arriving in brazil, had a lot of ideas about what types of films i wanted to make. neidinha bandeira set me down. introduce me to the uru-eu-wau-wau people. huge area of pristine rainforest, crucially important for climate change and keeping the guardrails on the worst effects of our changing climate. it is being defended by a group of 183 people. between neidinha bandeira and her relationship with the uru-eu-wau-wau, forged a story about defense of the rain forest, trying to bring in the perspective of some of the farmers and settlers also

invading, burning, and attacking this forest as well. amy: that is what is so unusual also about the territory, your film, you talk to the people that the indigenous people called the invaders. talked about the settlers and the farmers and their response to you in this film as they understood that you are doing a film about the people they consider their enemy -- or do they? >> the motivation and the impetus to reach out to these invading farmers and settlers came from conversations with bitate uru-eu-wau-wau and neidinha bandeira who said if you want understand the root, don't just talk to us. we are on the receiving end but go talk to the people that are lighting fires are out there chopping away at it and they will speak to you because you are american and they have this cultural ideological admiration

for america because of this ideas manifest destiny and the westward expansion and dispossession of native lens that occurred here. these settlers and frontiersmen brazil really to hold america and very high esteem and through a lot of conversations and moving past the kind of initial skepticism, we were able to forge relationships with these farmers that allowed us to get insight into what it is that is really driving this conflict in brazil. amy: did they understand the danger that indigenous people feel, and the whole issue of the climate catastrophe in the amazon being the lungs of the planet? >> i think small subsystems farmers, as well as anybody, are feeling the effects of climate change. the people we spoke to said of course we understand climate change. that is a given. they viewed land almost as a

disposable commodity. they said we need to go get fresh laid because the land here is too degraded. so they have some ecological awareness but i think the historical context of their actions come the scope of destruction in the amazon is something they're not really aware of. at the same time, that this dangerous view that the land is just unoccupied. it is the same national mythology that america was founded on, that there is any empty area on the map and it is up to them to go out and colonize it, turn that wilderness into private property. that is how the settlers in view -- you these indigenous people, they are an inevitable row to the acquisition of this land. amy: you're doing this and a larg political context and you are an american doing this fm during president trump, bolsonaro come the president of brazil, so often been called the

trump of the tropics. can you talk about that relationship and what drove you to understand something you are seeing in the united states as well? >> i think you see it in the physical paraphernalia these farmers have, the big belt buckles, the texas cowboy hats. they really believe in this american colonial project. bolsonaro had a quote from the 1990's when he was the senator that said it is a shame that brazilian cavalry hasn't been as efficient as the american. now they don't have these indigenous problems in their country. i think that idea, that dangerous, violent, toxic idea is at the core of the way a lot of these farmers and settlers view their relationship to america. amy: can you talk about the making of "the territory"?

in the film, we see indigenous people, the people you are filming also filming. explain. >> during covid, bitate, the young leader of uru-eu-wau-wau, said no more cameras, no more alex, nobody is coming into or out of our territory. that was in part because of the collective memory of what happed to s community when they were forcibly assimilated and contacted by the brazilian government may 1981. more than half of the population died within two years, largely from communicable diseases. amy: this was an uncontacted population. explain what that means. until then. >> as brazil is building roads into the amazon, that a policy they would go out and forcibly contact and assimilate a lot of these isolated indigenous groups that were livingutonomously in the region. in a way to protect the people

that were building these roads and invading that indigenous territory. in 1981, that happen to the uru-eu-wau-wau community. there were forcibly assimilated into a brazilian state. a portion of the uru-eu-wau-wau remained isolated and said we are not going to acquiesce to this forest contact by this new white group that has shown up and surrounded us. bitate and the uru-eu-wau-wau, protecting the forest and planes and animals, also protecting their own relatives that remained in voluntary isolation without knowledge of bolsonaro or the brazilian state, really living their lives in a more traditional way. amy: continue on the issue of the cameras. bitate, during covid, says no more alex, no more people from the outside. take it from there. >> when tate made that really

brave decision say no one else allowed in or out of our territory, we had to take stock of the film team is i, do we have enough footage? where are we in the storytelling process? thatat was an open conversatione had with bitate and the protagonists of our film. bitate said, just send us some cameras to miss it is better audio equipment, and we will produce, shoot, manage the production of the last chapter of this film. it was a big gamble at the time, felt really risky and scary to me as a director. but looking back, i think it opened up all of these creative possibilities press to be able to gain access and allow the audience to gain first-hand perspective into this indigenous experience and we've the story in their hands -- leave the story through their hands and their eyes. amy: alex pritz, thank you for being with us, rector of "the territory." we are joined right now by one

of the people featured in the new film "the territory." uru-eu-wau-wau indigenous land in brazil. he is coordinator of the association since 2020, works with the young citizens of the amazon blog. bitate, welcome to democracy now! and welcome to the united states. >> thank you very much for having me. amy: so you have been chosen by the elders of your community to be the leader. how old are you? >> i was chosen by the elders of my people. i am now 22 years old.

in june i turned 22. but i began from a young age taking on major responsibility when i was 19 years old. now i am on the front lines fighng for my people. amy: talk about what that means, fighting for your people on the front lines. talk about what you're fighting for. >> well i think we're fighting for the rights of indigenous peoples in brazil because we have seen several setbacks and this is leading us to be able to stand up for our rights. these rights are being taken

apart. we are losing our rights. and more in the territories occupied by indigenous peoples. amy: i just watched "the territory," this new film about you and your community and the amazon. in it, you are fighting to preserve the amazon and we are listening to bolsonaro, the president. can you talk about what his presidency has meant to indigenous people? he said, there won't be one more inch of indigenous reserve. >> so the bolsonaro administration did not demarcate indigenous territories -- he said he would when he was running for president of brazil.

today he is wanting to reduce the territories more and more, particularly my territory and other indigenous territories. there are many indigenous lands in brazil that are ready for demarcation yet his administration did not demarcate a single inch. for us indigenous people, this is a setback because we see a president who is not recognizing indigenous peoples rights. he wants to take away those rights so as to turn the lands over to farming -- we don't accept that as indigenous peoples. we don't want what happened with our ancestors to happen again, decimating our territories. we have suffered many threats because of this. are subject to pressur by land invaders, by illegal prospecting and logging.

within our territories, there are people of had no contact whatsoever with society, with civilized society so to speak. . concerned about this. he says [indiscernible] being killed by the actions taken by the government. this time we're trying to fight that. we will never stop fighting for our territory and for our rights. amy: you made a critical decision as a young leader of your community at the beginning of the pandemic saying people from outside could not come in. that also meant the filmmaker alex pritz and his team and you

said, why don't you give us the cameras? talk about what that is meant for you as you frame your own reality. talk about what you did and what you filmed, the story you feel you want people to know. >> so during the pandemic, we had a major problem. we did not let anyone in from outside, including alex, who started all of this. so we had a very good idea and it also created opportunity for us, indigenous peoples as well, so we ourselves could show. we have a different viewpoint which is shown clearly in the film. we ourselves build our own stories. we filmed our own reality. we filmed far beyond what alex

and gabrielle to get to. amy: we are speaking about the new documentary "the territory. in this clip, we meet neidinha bandeira as she goes into the rain forest with the uru-eu-wau-wau to investigate a report of invaders encroaching on their land and illegally cutting down trees.

amy: that's a clip from "the territory," featuring our next guest neidinha bandeira, who spent over four decades working directly with indigenous communities to defend their rights and protect their lands. she co-founded the nonprofit kandidé ethno-environmental defense association to continue their work with indigenous populations. neidinha bandeira, welcome to democracy now! >> thank you. thank you very much for having me. it is going to be on a program that talks about democracy. amy: talk about the greatest threats to the indigenous community in brazil and to the rain forest. >> i can't talk about the amazon forest in brazil without speaking of the indigenous people. and today the main rights that are being taken away by the

rights of the land, the right to health, the right education, the right to live free. these are setbacks we are suffering in brazil. from many years we struggle to have a constitution that was explicitly guaranteeing indigenous peoples low rights and we achieve that with the 1988 constitution. it is just with the current administration, the bolsonaro administration, and there congress, which is filled with people that do not represent the indigenous people, do not represent the black people come the social movements in brazil, we are seeing our rights are being taken away. the right to life, though right to live well, to have a balanced climate for everyone, not just for us. those are being taken away. the right to have a democracy in brazil. democracy is in danger in brazil and this also includes not allowing indigenous people to enjoy the right to land and to their territory. amy: do you think luiz inácio lula da silva represents

something different in brazil from what bolsonaro has been as president? >> absolutely. lula is the difference. today people are fighting. we are fighting for bolsonaro not to be reelected. under the lula administration, the poor people got education. the poorest people were able to eat. they were able to get services from al system which provided those health services. but none of that is working today. today the bolsonaro administration has openly stated he is not going to demarcate anymore land. he has declared the lands are already demarcated, lands already guaranteed for the indigenous peoples maybe indeed diminished. he has the support of the congress. what must be clear is it is not enough to just change the president in brazil, we need to change the president of brazil but also change a large part of

the congress because bolsonaro was only able to do many of the absurd things he has done because congress would not stop him from doing so. so coming elections are extremely poor for the present people, so is ensuring our constitution will remain in place and our rights will be respected. i'm not going to say lula was the best thing we have seen for the indigenous peoples and the environment because that is not true. one thing i can guarantee you is he was better than bolsonaro. amy: that is neidinha bandeira, the cofounder of the nonprofit kandidé ethno-environmental defense association one of the people featured in "the territory." it comes out friday and theaters across the country. we also spoke to the film's director alex pritz and bitate uru-eu-wau-wau who is coordinator of the jupaú association.

i had the chance to moderate the q&a with them in central park when it premiered on tuesday night. that does it for our show. [captioning made possible by democracy now!] democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.orñcñcñcñc