BRAZIL’S indigenous population issued an urgent appeal for international solidarity today to avert a genocide as they try to assert their social and cultural rights.

Community leaders warned that far-right racists have stepped up attacks on indigenous groups following the election of President Jair Bolsonaro, who has claimed that Brazil’s Landless Workers Movement and other minority rights organisations are “terrorists.”

At least 11 indigenous groups have demanded assurances from the Brazilian government over their economic, social and cultural rights in the midwestern state of Mato Grosso do Sul.