Tiny rainforest lizards leap into water and don’t come up when expected. Scientists now know why
FBI agents have boarded vessel managed by company whose other cargo ship collapsed Baltimore bridge
Newsom signs bill to regulate social media use among children
Ukrainian President Zelenskyy will visit a Pennsylvania ammunition factory to thank workers
Hezbollah leaders among 37 killed in Israeli strike in Lebanon
For a week, New York will be center of money-focused fight to slow climate change
Giant sinkholes in a South Dakota neighborhood make families fear for their safety
Lizard on track halts Formula 1 practice in Singapore
Lando Norris beats Max Verstappen for pole position at F1's Singapore Grand Prix
How the indictment against Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs parallels the R. Kelly case – with one key difference
SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil's Congress on Thursday overturned a veto by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva so it can reinstate legislation that undoes protections of Indigenous peoples’ land rights. The decision sets up a new battle between lawmakers and the country's top court on the matter.
Both federal deputies and senators voted by a wide margin to support a bill that argues the date Brazil’s Constitution was promulgated — Oct. 5, 1988 — is the deadline by which Indigenous peoples had to be physically occupying or fighting legally to reoccupy territory in order to claim land allotments.
In September, Brazil’s Supreme Court decided on a 9-2 vote that such a theory was unconstitutional. Brazilian lawmakers reacted by using a fast-track process to pass a bill that addressed that part of the original legislation, and it will be valid until the court examines the issue again.
The override of Lula's veto was a victory for congressional supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro — who joined several members of Lula’s coalition in voting to reverse the president's action -- and his allies in agribusiness.
Supporters of the bill argued it was needed to provide legal security to landowners and accused Indigenous leaders of pushing for an unlimited expansion of their territories.
Indigenous rights groups say the concept of the deadline is unfair because it does not account for expulsions and forced displacements of Indigenous populations, particularly during Brazil’s 1964-1985 military dictatorship.
Rights group Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil, known by the Portuguese acronym Apib, said in its social medial channels that it would take the case back to Brazil's Supreme Court. Leftist lawmakers said the same.
“The defeated are those who are not fighting. Congress approved the deadline bill and other crimes against Indigenous peoples,” Apib said. “We will continue to challenge this."
Shortly after the vote in Congress, about 300 people protested in front of the Supreme Court building.
