Brazil National Guard deployed for Indigenous demonstration

RIO DE JANEIRO – President Jair Bolsonaro is calling in an unusually strong military presence to control an annual demonstration in the capital by Brazilian indigenous rights activists.

The decree published Wednesday in the official gazette calls for National Guard forces to supplement the local military police forces used in previous years. It did not specify how many would be called in.

Thousands of indigenous people gather each April to demand recognizition of the rights and lands. In 2017, demonstrators clashed with authorities, with police using tear gas and rubber bullets to try to disperse the protesters who responded with arrows.

Bolsonaro has called for opening indigenous lands to greater mining and commercial development and has been skeptical of granting indigenous people special rights.