Brazil court orders government to provide transportation for Indigenous voters in Sunday’s runoff

SAO PAULO -- A federal court in Para state ordered Brazil’s government Thursday to ensure Indigenous people nationwide can vote in Sunday’s presidential runoff.“Geographic distance, combined with a lack of accessible transportation, can make a formally recognized right impossible to exercise in practice,” the ruling said.The ruling granted a request filed Wednesday by federal prosecutors, who sought free transportation by river, land or air, as well as funding for food, interpreters, cultural facilitators and signs in Indigenous languages at polling places.The lawsuit cited accounts from Indigenous communities across Brazil, including allegations that municipal governments denied transportation for political reasons and ranchers prevented Indigenous workers from leaving farms to vote.On Sunday, leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and his far-right challenger, Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, a son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, will face off in a tight election, according to recent polls. Both men have markedly different approaches to protecting the Amazon. The Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil, known as Apib, announced Thursday that it filed an urgent request for the...