By Adriano Machado
SANTAREM, Brazil, Feb 24 (Reuters) – Brazilian Indigenous protesters who invaded a Cargill port facility in the northern town of Santarem plan to leave the site within about 48 hours, Indigenous leader Alessandra Munduruku told Reuters on Tuesday.
The group has been occupying the Cargill facility since the weekend, after weeks of blocking the port’s entrance and disrupting truck traffic at a crucial time for the farming sector as the country reaps another bumper soybean crop.
The protesters are now making transportation arrangements before effectively leaving the facility, Munduruku said.
“We’re going to sit down and get organized here. Clean up (the place). There’s the issue of garbage. There are many children, many people who weren’t yet prepared to leave,” she said.
“We’re still looking into the transportation issue. These 48 hours are enough for us to leave,” she added, noting that many protesters would need boats to return to their villages.
Speaking from the Cargill site, Munduruku noted protesters’ demands had been met after the government revoked a decree that included Amazonian waterways on the Tapajos, Madeira and Tocantins rivers in the federal government’s privatization program.
According to the protesters, the August decree would open up Amazonian rivers to dredging, which could impact water quality and the fishing they rely on to survive.
Grains such as soy and corn are moved along the rivers before reaching export markets.
(Reporting by Adriano MachadoWriting by Ana ManoEditing by Gabriel Araujo)
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