Brazilian anti-indigenous politics: tracking changes on indigenous rights regulation during Bolsonaro’s government

Abstract Between 2019 and 2022, the Bolsonaro’s government propagated a strong anti-environmental and anti-indigenous rhetoric that devalued how indigenous peoples live and occupy these territories. In this paper, we are interested in understanding the total repercussions of Bolsonaro’s anti-environmentalism, focusing on the legal norm propositions involving indigenous peoples and indigenous lands. We argue that the Law is one crucial instrument to maintain or change social relations and by tracing normative changes, we can comprehend important aspects of power disputes in specific contexts. In this sense, we examine the production of legal norms by the federal government and by the National Congress that flexibilize, sometimes indirectly, the territorial rights of indigenous peoples and how this process is publicly defended by the contestation of indigenous history, culture, and rights.