Indigenous April 2020 is marked by the advance of the coronavirus to the villages, on top of the invasions, attacks, threats and killings in indigenous territories around the country.
Despite the pandemic, violence against indigenous peoples only increases. On 31 March, Zezico Guajajara, a teacher and leader who fought for the protection of his people’s territory, was brutally murdered in Maranhão. On 18 April, indigenous man Ari Uru-eu-wau-wau was murdered in the municipality of Jaru in Rondônia. He was a member of a group of guardians and protectors of his people’s territory and had been threatened by criminals responsible for invasions and destruction in the region. According to the Land Conflicts Register (in Portuguese) published by the Pastoral Land Commission (Comissão Pastoral da Terra – CPT), in 2019 alone, 9 indigenous people were murdered in Brazil. For every 3 families involved in land conflicts, one was indigenous and, out of a total of 144,742 families, 49,750 indigenous families were involved in conflicts.
For Sonia Bone Guajajara (Executive Coordinator of the Association of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil: APIB – Articulação dos Povos Indígenas do Brasil), at a time of pandemic, the lack of territorial demarcation leaves indigenous populations even more vulnerable: “We are not only exposed to the coronavirus, crimes committed by loggers, prospectors and land grabbers continue, with intense rights violations and the destruction of our nature. We need preventative policies, humanitarian aid and effective environmental protection policies to avoid invasions, which are a constant source of disease-causing contamination in the territories”.
To confront COVID 19, Guajajara emphasizes the urgent measures that should be adopted through inter-governmental and inter-institutional coordination between the states and the federal government to confront COVID 19 in indigenous territories: The Special Secretariat for Indigenous Health (Secretaria Especial de Saúde Indígena: SESAI) should immediately adopt the criterion of community contagion; make tests available in sufficient quantity to test indigenous people, since if this access is not forthcoming we will not be able to discover the exact contamination rate, further facilitating the spread of the virus around the villages; treat all indigenous people equally, independent of where they live; construct field hospitals to exclusively treat indigenous people in the Amazon, while the National Indian Foundation (Fundação Nacional do Índio: FUNAI) needs to immediately invest BRL 11 million in the fight against coronavirus and guarantee the immediate removal of all invaders, loggers and prospectors from indigenous territories.
COVID 19 deaths in indigenous villages
According to the site that monitors the COVID 19 pandemic in indigenous lands, created by the Socio-environmental Institute (Instituto Socioambiental: ISA) www.covid19.socioambiental.org-, of the 37,057 COVID 19 cases in Brazil, 27 are in indigenous rural areas, with 3 deaths (data from 17.04 at 5pm).
CESE is also watching, closely and with concern, this pandemic scenario, on top of the massacres, racism, criminalization and killing of leaders. In order to transform this situation, the organization continues working in the struggle for and defence of indigenous people’s rights, providing visibility to the movements’ online campaigns and fundraisers, reporting rights violations and supporting projects: in the last 15 years alone this includes approximately 520 projects, benefitting 325 thousand representatives of original peoples from the whole of Brazil.
Campaign for Solidarity for indigenous peoples
The Association of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (Articulação dos Povos Indígenas do Brasil: APIB) stresses the need for urgent measures to protect indigenous territories and lives and calls on civil society to support the purchase of food and hygiene materials which will be distributed to the villages. To support the campaign visit:
https://www.vakinha.com.br/vaquinha/apoie-os-povos-indigenas