They called it the 'Decree of Death.'
In late 2025, the Brazilian government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva issued Decree 12,600/2025 — a measure that would have allowed sections of the Tapajós, Madeira, and Tocantins rivers to be privatised and dredged. The official rationale: to build industrial waterways for agribusiness, primarily to move soy and grain exports out of Santarém, in the state of Pará.
For the Munduruku, the Arapiuns, the Apiaká, and the dozens of other indigenous peoples who have lived alongside the Tapajós for centuries, the decree threatened everything. Their rivers. Their territories. Their way of life. Their ancestors.
They had not been consulted. Under ILO Convention 169, to which Brazil is a signatory, free, prior, and informed consent is a legal requirement before projects affecting indigenous territories can proceed. The government had ignored it.
So they took action.
Thousands of indigenous people, representing 14 peoples through the Tapajós and Arapiuns Indigenous Council, descended on Santarém and occupied the Cargill grain terminal — the very facility that would have benefited most from the planned dredging. The occupation lasted 33 days. Day after day, through heat and rain, they held the terminal. They sang. They performed ceremonies. They gave interviews to international journalists. They blocked barges.
The world watched.
In February 2026, the Lula government blinked. Decree 12,600/2025 was revoked.
'What won today was life,' said the Tapajós and Arapiuns Indigenous Council in a statement. 'The river won, the forest won, the memory of our ancestors won.'
It is a victory for the Tapajós — one of the Amazon's great tributaries, a river of extraordinary biodiversity, lined with indigenous territories and traditional fishing communities that depend on its health. It is a victory for the principle of consent, for the idea that indigenous peoples have the right to say no to decisions made about their lands without them.
And it is a reminder of something important: that ordinary people — without armies or wealth, armed only with presence and persistence — can stop governments and corporations in their tracks.
Thirty-three days. The river won. 🌿