COVID-19 endangers the guardians of the Amazon
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who for several weeks denied the seriousness of the coronavirus pandemic, has tested positive for the second time in a week. Still, Bolsonaro is just one of the more than two million victims of COVID-19 in the Latin American nation. The disease of the era of globalization has entered several indigenous communities in Brazil and has killed dozens of people, including Paulo Paiakan, a prominent indigenous leader of the 1980s.
The more than 400 indigenous peoples living in the world's largest forest and various human rights organizations have criticized the government's handling of this health crisis, as well as the state authorities for their lack of interest in protecting the inhabitants of this region. The mortality rate in Brazilian indigenous communities is higher than the national rate (12.6% versus 6.4%), according to data published by the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB).
"The past shows that state policies that violate the ways of life of indigenous peoples, associated with negligence in the protection of their lands, have caused extreme vulnerability in these communities," this organization stresses, claiming that the impact of this disease is not something occasional, but is the result of "colonial policies" that have created the ideal scenario for the spread of this pathogen. "Understanding these episodes teaches us how a country is defined not only by its memories, but also by its forgetfulness," they added.
In 1994, expert Félix Báez-Jorge wrote in an article titled 'Anthropology and Indigenism in Latin America: Signs of Identity' that the term indigenism was just a way of defining "policies aimed at promoting the material and social improvement of indigenous communities". "The indigenist policies express the concern of the government authorities [...] to raise the living standards of the Indian peoples", he stated without being aware that 25 years later the Government presided over by Jair Bolsonaro would pose a threat to the communities living in the Amazon.
The Brazilian president has promulgated a bill declaring indigenous peoples to be "groups in a situation of extreme vulnerability" to the COVID-19 pandemic, albeit with several vetoes proposing the implementation of social protection measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 among the indigenous peoples living in this region. These prohibitions include the provision of drinking water and hospital beds to these communities. Bolsonaro explained that there was not enough budget for the expenses proposed by Congress, while several human rights organizations have insisted that the emergency is such that these types of measures should be implemented. The Brazilian Socioenvironmental Institute called this decision by the head of state "criminal". Like the government, the UN and the OAS have placed indigenous peoples among the most vulnerable.
Indigenous peoples living in the Amazon face a triple threat from the coronavirus, the dismantling of environmental policies and international inaction. The protection of ancestral territories and lands is the central axis around which the various indigenous policies gravitate. Therefore, since the beginning of this pandemic, it has been the communities themselves who have worked to protect their territory and all the people living in it.
Last March, the Socioenvironmental Institute, the Arns Commission and Conectas Human Rights published a report detailing the process of deterioration that the indigenous and environmental policies were suffering from the Bolsonaro Executive, which from the beginning of its campaign made clear its intention to allow the economic exploitation of these lands, home to hundreds of indigenous communities, increasing their situation of vulnerability.
In order to reduce the impact of this crisis to the maximum, the Pan-American Health Organization and the Coordinating Body of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA) have agreed to intensify the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in indigenous areas of the Amazon. Thus, through a joint communiqué they have called on the international community to strengthen "the care in the health services of the Amazon, with the provision of human resources, medical supplies and devices, including tests and treatments and vaccines for COVID-19 when these are available," with special attention to those communities that have decided to isolate themselves voluntarily to protect their homes.
"The daily increase in cases and deaths from COVID-19 has meant a hard blow to the indigenous peoples and nationalities of the Amazon, whose communities are in a critical situation," states the communiqué signed by both organizations, which warns that the spread of this virus exposes certain people "to a serious risk of extinction".
The Coordinator of the Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin and PAHO have sent a clear message: "the high rates of diabetes, hypertension and other chronic diseases in these communities increase the risk of contracting coronavirus with serious symptoms, as well as chronic malnutrition of children in indigenous people, high rates of maternal mortality, malaria and dengue, which add to the emergency of the pandemic of COVID-19".
Against the actions supported by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, both organizations have called on governments to urgently implement, in coordination with indigenous organizations in the Amazon, plans and protocols to address the current health crisis. In this scenario, they have highlighted the need to pay attention to the different geographical and cultural contexts of each of the communities. PAHO and COICA have also called on the international community to "articulate the responses of indigenous organizations and governments of the Amazon countries to implement a joint and adopted response to the social and cultural reality and specific needs of these localities," with emphasis on the border areas.
"We must strengthen a social protection network for these communities, so that actions to prevent and reduce the speed of transmission can be effective," they said, stressing that "it is vital to have programs to address public health problems affecting the indigenous peoples and nationalities of the Amazon, such as chronic child malnutrition, maternal mortality, malaria, dengue, tuberculosis, and HIV, among others.
In the joint communiqué drafted by the two organizations, PAHO has stated that "indigenous health is a priority" for these institutions, which provide technical support to indigenous populations through various projects. "The historic difficulty of access to health care for the Amazonian populations, added to the current health emergency, requires a coordinated and forceful response among states, indigenous organizations, the agencies of the United Nations System and other international cooperation partners," the official document concludes.
Weibe Tapeba, a leader of the indigenous community of Tapeba and legal advisor to the State Federation of Indigenous Peoples of Ceará told Sputnik News that "the indigenous peoples of Brazil have been vulnerable since the day the Kariwas (white men) set foot in our territories". Tapeba regretted that the Brazilian government had not taken sufficient measures to combat the spread of the disease. "The need to expand human resources, infrastructure ranging from the need to build basic health units and provide beds to the need for rapid testing, food baskets and personal hygiene kits, would be critical at this time of pandemic," he told the newspaper.
Brazil is the country where most indigenous peoples live (305), followed by Colombia (102), Peru (85) and Mexico (78). At the other extreme are Costa Rica and Panama, with 8 and 9 Indigenous Peoples each, El Salvador (3) and Uruguay (2). The coronavirus and the onset of the fire season - which in 2019 affected mainly the Brazilian Amazon region and other parts of the Amazon biome, such as Bolivia or Peru - are endangering the lives and homes of the various Amazon guardian communities.
