Brazil appoints new head of Indian Affairs Agency

SAO PAULO – The Brazilian government has appointed an Army Reserve General as interim president of the Indian Affairs Agency less than a week after it fired the agency’s former head amid escalating land conflicts between ranchers and indigenous tribes.

The appointment of General Franklimberg Ribeiro de Freitas was published Tuesday in the government’s official gazette.

Before the appointment, Freitas headed the agency’s Sustainable Development Department.

He replaces Antonio Fernandes Costa who was fired shortly after armed men attacked a group of Indians occupying ranch land in Brazil’s northeastern state of Maranhao, injuring at least seven people.

That attack came about a week after police in Brasilia fired shots to disperse thousands of indigenous people who gathered outside Congress demanding the demarcation of their lands.