Brazil’s Indigenous march to pressure court on land ruling

By DÉBORA ÁLVARES and DAVID BILLER
Associated Press

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Thousands of Indigenous people have marched toward Brazil’s Supreme Court to pressure justices expected to issue a ruling with far-reaching implications for land rights. The justices will be evaluating a lower court’s ruling that invalidated an Indigenous group’s claim to what it says is its ancestral territory. The lower court based its decision on allegations the group wasn’t occupying the land in October 1988, when Brazil’s new constitution was signed. The group says it was there. Brazil’s conservative President Jair Bolsonaro suggested Wednesday that a change would prompt new requests to officially recognize hundreds of Indigenous territories.