A’uwẽ-Xavante campaign challenges Brazil railway over Indigenous territory
A’uwẽ-Xavante leaders launched an international campaign in Geneva against Brazil’s Center-West Integration Railway, saying its route threatens their territory, ceremonies and consent rights.
- The Center-West Integration Railway is a federal project of about 1,641 kilometers under Infra S.A.
- The first section, about 363 kilometers, is being built by Vale between Mara Rosa, Goiás, and Água Boa, Mato Grosso.
- In May 2026, Infra S.A. reported that about 80 kilometers of the final portion depended on the Indigenous environmental plan and negotiations with Xavante communities.
- COIAB denounced irregularities in the FICO consultation process in February 2026; the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office opened a monitoring proceeding.
- The campaign was launched during the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Geneva in July 2026.
1,641 kilometers: the planned length of Brazil’s Center-West Integration Railway, a federal freight corridor whose route studies have identified as touching A’uwẽ-Xavante territories in the Cerrado.
A’uwẽ-Xavante leaders launched an international campaign against the railway, also known as FICO or EF-354, during the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Geneva in July 2026. Messages projected near the Jet d’Eau read “Let the A’uwẽ-Xavante Keep Dreaming” and “Stop the megaprojects fragmenting Ró, the A’uwẽ-Xavante territory.”
For the A’uwẽ-Xavante, dreaming is a social, spiritual and political practice tied to songs, ancestors and territorial continuity. Ró, a term encompassing Cerrado, world, land and relationships, is central to the campaign.
The campaign says the railway is part of a broader network of highways, railways, waterways and export corridors designed to move soybeans, corn and other commodities. It argues that advancing such projects without adequate free, prior and informed consultation threatens the material, spiritual and political conditions that sustain the A’uwẽ-Xavante, a group of about 25,300 people in Brazil’s Centre-West region.
The first FICO section, about 363 kilometers between Mara Rosa, Goiás, and Água Boa, Mato Grosso, is being built by mining company Vale. In May 2026, Infra S.A. reported that about 80 kilometers of the final portion of that section depended on completing the Basic Environmental Plan – Indigenous Component and on negotiations with Xavante communities.
A technical note by the Brazilian Anthropological Association says the railway affects areas of traditional occupation, claimed lands not yet demarcated, gathering areas, former villages, burial grounds, waterways and sacred sites. It recommends suspending construction and the installation license until adequate consultation takes place and altering the route so it does not cross A’uwẽ-Xavante territoriality.
“Any project that affects one of our territories is a problem for the entire A’uwẽ-Xavante People,” A’uwẽ-Xavante leader Hiparidi Top’tiro said in the campaign document.
The Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon denounced irregularities in the FICO consultation process in February 2026, citing short intervals between meetings, pressure on leaders, lack of independent technical assistance and communication difficulties. The Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office opened an administrative proceeding to monitor the process. ILO and UNDRIP require states to consult in good faith to obtain free, prior and informed consent.
The campaign also argues that railways and other low-carbon infrastructure can reproduce colonial mechanisms when they treat Indigenous territories as sacrifice zones.
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