In 1910, the Indian Protection Service (Serviço de Proteção ao Índio), or the SPI, was founded under the leadership of Brazilian Marshal Candido Rondon.
[1][2] The SPI then began its mission to "pacify" Indian communities by setting up posts in their territories to foster communication and protection.
[1] Efforts were initially met by opposition and hostility from Indian groups; there were reports of SPI agents being attacked and shot by arrows.
In 1967, the officials were accused of sexual perversion, abuse, and the massacre of entire tribes by introducing diseases and pesticides, leading to an international outcry for the disbandment of SPI.
[8][9] In the early 1970s, FUNAI president General Jerônimo Bandeira de Mello approved the plan for a highway that would run through Brazil's Amazon to Peru's frontier.
[16][19] FUNAI followed procedure and submitted its official opinion to the Ministry of Justice, rejecting the appeals that were brought against the indigenous lands.
One of these territories was the Raposa/Serra do Sol region in the northern state of Roraima, home to the Macuxi, Wapixanas, Ingaricós, Taurepangs and Patamonas peoples.
[16][20] After Decree 1775, the claims against the Raposa/Serra do Sol regions were backed by the Roraima state government, which supported breaking up the area into smaller settlements.
[20] Despite FUNAI's recommendations to demarcate the entire indigenous region, commercial and state pressure led Justice Nelson Jobim to order the reduction of land under Decree 1775.
Protesters were eventually forcibly removed from their camp outside the Ministry of Justice Building, and the Decree remained in effect, decreasing the quality and efficiency FUNAI could provide to indigenous peoples.
[30] In July 2019, Bolsonaro appointed Marcelo Xavier da Silva, a federal police officer with strong connections to agribusiness, as the new president of the FUNAI.
Silva was also nominated but not confirmed as an aide to Nabhan Garcia, a senior agriculture ministry official and president of an agribusiness lobby.
[33] On the same day, Sônia Guajajara, a federal deputy elected for São Paulo in 2022, became the first indigenous woman to hold a ministerial position in the Brazilian government, when she was appointed as a minister.