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Setback for Indians

IN THE UN Year of Indigenous Peoples, Brazilian Indians have received a setback with the dismissal of Sydney Possuelo, head of Brazil's Indian Affairs Bureau, who was actively involved in protecting and demarcating Indian land. Under the constitution, all Indian lands must be demarcated by October 1993, but so far this has been carried out in just two areas.

Possuelo's dismissal follows his attempts to get land demarcated for the Macuxi, Ingariko, Wapixana and Tuarepang Indians in Rorarima in north Brazil. Local politicians and ranchers were opposed to demarcation of this 15,000-sq-km stretch of mineral-rich land for the Indians.

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