Brazil’s Krenak Indigenous group gets literary esteem and an apology for dictatorship crimes

By ELÉONORE HUGHES and MAURICIO SAVARESE
Associated Press

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — It was a monumental week for Brazil’s Krenak Indigenous group after decades of being overlooked at best, and at worst, subjugated and tortured. On Tuesday, the Krenak people received a formal apology for human rights abuses they suffered during the military dictatorship (1964-1985) — a first in Brazil. Then one of its leaders, renowned writer and environmentalist Ailton Krenak, on Friday became the first Indigenous person to earn a seat at the Brazilian Academy of Letters, the country’s most exclusive literature body.