Brazil Indians say Lula broke reservation promise

Brazil Indians say Lula broke reservation promise

NEW YORK, May 7 (Reuters) - Indians from a remote northern corner of Brazil's Amazon said on Friday leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had broken a promise to grant them a reservation under pressure from local powerbrokers.

Brazil's Justice Ministry said it would grant 15,000 Indians exclusive rights to ancestral lands known as the Mountain of the Sun Fox in Roraima state by January.

But a lawyer for one of the five Indian groups living in the 6,370 square-mile (1.7 million-hectare) area said Lula had delayed handing it over after local farmers and politicians mounted protests and roadblocks against the plan.

The Roraima Indians' plea comes as Lula faces growing violence and social unrest in Brazil that has affected indigenous areas encroached on by white settlers, miners and farmers.

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a rock and a hard place. On one hand he must appease the WTO and the west, along with the elite in his own nation. On the other hand he must help his leftist constituents. Now poor people in Brazil are beginning to take land by force. Lula has a plan for land reform but it has been criticized as not being reovlutionary enough.

But he's got to pick a side, he can't please them both.
I suppose the military is a big factor in his caution.