BRASILIA, Feb 24 — The Brazilian government said Monday it was revoking an order that would have allowed for the expansion of ports for grain transport along Amazonian waterways, following weeks of protests by Indigenous communities, including the occupation of a terminal operated by US agricultural giant Cargill.

The South American nation is the world’s top exporter of soy and maize, and efforts to upgrade river ports aim to ease transportation.

The repeal is a victory for the protesters, meeting one of their key demands after they spent more than a month camped outside the terminal’s entrance in Santarem, in the northern state of Para.

The occupation continued even after the government suspended the dredging of a major Amazon tributary two weeks earlier.

“This is a government that listens to the point of backing down from its own decision because it understands and comprehends the position of these people,” Guilherme Boulos, Minister of the General Secretariat, said at a press conference where he announced the decree was revoked.

The Indigenous protesters are against an expansion of the ports and the dredging of the Amazon’s waterways, which they consider vital to their way of life. — AFP