07/Dec/2020
The document “Our struggle is for life” provides a complete overview of the current health and humanitarian crisis among the indigenous peoples of Brazil. Denunciations of rights violations, analysis of data presented by the Federal Government and actions to combat the spread of the virus, are the main topics addressed by the report.
The Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil – APIB announces the publication of the report “Our struggle is for life” which presents data on the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic among indigenous peoples. The report presentation will be held on December 10, the date on which the United Nations General Assembly formalized the International Declaration of Human Rights.
The Activity will be carried out in conjunction with the APIB grassroots indigenous organizations, with the Mixed Parliamentary Front in Defense of Indigenous People’s Rights, social movements and organizations that strengthen the indigenous peoples’ struggles.
In addition to recording the growth in the number of infected and killed by Covid-19, the report contextualizes the vectors of virus entry in the territories and the omission of the government to control the spread of the disease.
Violence against indigenous peoples, in this pandemic period, was intensified and this aggravation was encouraged by the Bolsonaro government, according to the survey carried out by Apib.
The report also presents an analysis of the different methodologies used by the Federal Government to record and monitor cases of contamination and deaths by Covid-19 among indigenous peoples. The lack of transparency, added to the institutional racism, especially with indigenous people living in an urban context, reveals once again the Federal Government’s anti-indigenous policy.
“Our struggle is for life” is a material that integrates the social control actions of the Indigenous Emergency plan, an instrument built by Apib to demand from the Federal Government the fulfillment of its constitutional duty to protect indigenous peoples and organize fronts of emergency response actions to confront the pandemic.
The document was organized by APIB through the National Committee for Indigenous Life and Memory, that develops the community monitoring of the spread of the virus among peoples. The Committee is composed of representatives of APIB grassroots indigenous organizations, indigenous leaders and members of networks built to face the pandemic in different territories.
“We also show in this document the thousands of actions carried out by the indigenous movement, throughout Brazil, to save lives. We do not want to take the role of the Government, but it is not an option to sit idly in the face of so much political omission and violence ”, emphasizes Sonia Guajajara, executive coordinator of Apib.
17/Nov/2020
The #MinersOutCovidOut campaign launches the film “The Shaman’s Message” to warn the world that indigenous peoples alone cannot prevent the destruction of forests, the emergence of new pandemics and the climate collapse that threaten all of us.
Yanomami shamans are warriors of the spirit world. They connect the visible and invisible worlds, acting as shields against the evil powers emanating from both humans and non-human beings that threaten the lives of their communities. Shamans dedicate themselves to taming the entities and forces that move the universe. They hold up the sky. During these times of climate crisis, pandemic and massive forest fires, it may be worth listening to what they have to say.
The most well-known Yanomami shaman and leader, Davi Kopenawa, is the author of the book “The Falling Sky – words of a Yanomami shaman” (Harvard University Press, 2013) with French anthropologist Bruce Albert. Inspired by his words and teaching, on November 17 the Yanomami and Ye’kwana Leadership Forum is launching the film “The Shaman’s Message”. The short 2 minute film, narrated in Yanomami by Dario Kopenawa, Davi’s son, condenses the shamanic thought expressed in “The Falling Sky” and seeks to alert the world that, alone, indigenous peoples will not be able to prevent the destruction of forests, the emergence of new diseases and the climate collapse that threaten all of our lives.
Watch the “The Shaman’s Message” here.
Davi Kopenawa says the film brings “a clear thought that passes through the head like lightning, like fish climbing a waterfall”. The Yanomami leader explains that he has worked with other shamans to “hold up the sky”, but now it’s time for governments, big corporations and the “man of material goods” to do their work. “You white people need to think and see how this pandemic happened. Now everyone is afraid of this new xawara, of the coronavirus, but why are they not afraid when they kill millions of trees and fish, when they dig up the earth and spread garbage everywhere?”.
The “Shaman’s Message” is part of the #MinersOutCovidOut campaign, launched in June by the Yanomami and Ye’kwana Leadership Forum, which calls for the urgent removal of thousands of illegal gold miners working in the Yanomami Territory, in the Brazilian Amazon. Since the 1980s, illegal miners have been destroying the region’s forests and rivers and bringing all sorts of violence to communities, as well as diseases that have decimated entire villages. Now, the invaders are also spreading COVID-19 among the Yanomami. Through the end of October, the Pro-Yanomami and Ye’kwana Network had recorded a total of 23 dead and more than 1,200 people infected by COVID-19 in the Yanomami Territory.
The #MinersOutCovidOut campaign is an initiative of the Yanomami and Ye’kwana Leadership Forum, made up of the Hutukara Yanomami Association (HAY), Wanasseduume Ye’kwana Association (SEDUUME), Kumirayoma Yanomami Womens Association (AMYK), Texoli Ninam Association of Roraima (TANER), and the Yanomami Association of Rio Cauaburis and Affluents (AYRCA), Kurikama Yanomami Association (AKY) and Hwenama Association of Yanomami Peoples of Roraima (HAPYR). The campaign has support from the following organizations: Coalition of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB), Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB), Instituto Socioenvironmental (ISA), Amazon Watch, Survival International, Greenpeace Brazil, Conectas Human Rights, Amnesty International, Amazon Cooperation Network (RCA), Igarapé Institute, Rainforest Foundation Norway, Rainforest Foundation US and Amazon Watch.
Launched in June and aimed at the Brazilian government, the campaign has gathered over 410,000 petition signatures. The goal is to reach 500,000 to support the Yanomami and Ye’kwana, as well as all indigenous peoples who suffer invasions of their territories, culture and ways of life. Hear the shaman’s message. Help the Yanomami and other indigenous peoples hold up the sky and postpone the end of the world. Sign the petition: https://MinersOutCovidOut.org
12/Oct/2020
Indigenous Journey organized by the Association of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil – APIB in Europe, in 2019, is honored with the International Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award 2020.
The Association of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil – APIB (Articulação dos Povos Indígenas do Brasil—APIB) received the International Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award, from the Institute of Political Studies in Washington, DC for its work in defense of the rights of the indigenous peoples of Brazil. The organization of the first delegation of indigenous leaders to Europe for the Journey Indigenous Blood: Not A Single Drop More in 2019 was the hallmark for the entity’s recognition.
The Letelier-Moffitt International Human Rights Award was created in 1978 to honor outstanding performances in the field of human rights in memory of two former members of the Institute for Political Studies, Orlando Letelier and Ronni Karpen Moffitt, killed by the Chilean dictatorship in 1976. Each year, a committee composed of prestigious leaders from the human rights community elects the laureates. Lisa Haugaard, from the Latin America Working Group, appointed APIB for its outstanding work in defense of the rights of Brazil’s indigenous peoples.
The award-winning Canadian journalist and writer Naomi Klein, icon of global activism, will hand the award to APIB, which will be represented by its executive coordinator, Sônia Guajajara. The event will be held remotely due to the pandemic on October 15. APIB will broadcast the ceremony on its online channels.
“APIB, the Brazil’s Indigenous People Articulation, unites the struggle of the indigenous peoples, which are the roots of this country. With the strength of our ancestors, APIB has been fighting for over 15 years for indigenous rights across all regions of Brazil. In our struggle to protect our forests, we work for an inclusive culture and for indigenous public health. We have resisted for more than 500 years and will keep on working tirelessly towards justice. We are honored for the recognition, by the Institute of Political Studies, of our work in defense of Brazil and the indigenous peoples against environmental and cultural destruction. Our struggle includes every individual living on this planet during this time of climate crisis,” says Sonia Guajajara.
After 31 years, APIB receives the same recognition given to the Union of Indigenous Nations (União das Nações Indígenas—UNI) in 1989 for its vital contribution to the chapter on indigenous rights in the 1988 Constitution. Dom Paulo Evaristo Arns was the first Brazilian to be honored with the award in 1982.
The group of indigenous leaders representing APIB—composed of Alberto Terena, Angela Kaxuyana, Célia Xakriabá, Dinaman Tuxá, Elizeu Guarani Kaiowá, Sonia Guajajara and Kretã Kaingang—visited 12 European countries over 35 days, in October and November 2019, to denounce the serious violations perpetrated by the administration of President Jair Bolsonaro against indigenous peoples. After almost a year, attacks on our rights and our territories have mounted.
Invasions into indigenous lands, illegal exploitation of natural resources and other damage more than doubled in the first year of Jair Bolsonaro’s administration, rising from 109 cases in 2018 to 256 last year—a 135% increase. This was pointed out by the 216-page annual report Violence Against Indigenous Peoples in Brazil, published yesterday by the Indigenist Missionary Council (Conselho Indigenista Missionário—CIMI). There was also an increase in cases in 16 of the 19 categories of violence against indigenous people compiled by the publication, including “deaths due to lack of assistance,” which rose from 11 in 2018 to 31 in 2019; death threats, which grew from 8 to 33; intentional bodily injuries, which rose from 5 to 13; and deaths of children aged zero to five, which rose from 591 in 2018 to 825 last year.
In addition to the hostility that indigenous peoples have dealt with from all types of criminals in their territories, now the Brazil’s Indigenous People Articulation has received direct attacks from the Brazilian government. On September 22, APIB filed with the Supreme Federal Court (STF) a notification for the Brazilian government to explain, in court, the lies it has been spreading, and reported the aggressions against indigenous peoples to the United Nations.
“We will continue to make the sound of our maracás be heard everywhere, with the help of our Brazilian and international allies. We will keep on fighting in our territories and communities, in the Brazilian Congress, in the Supreme Federal Court, in international courts, and on networks, for our right to exist,” said Sônia Guajajara.
Currently, APIB, together with grassroots organizations, has coordinated efforts to address the Covid-19 pandemic among indigenous peoples. One of the work fronts is the National Committee for Indigenous Life and Memory, which surveys and disseminates the numbers of indigenous people contaminated and killed by the novel coronavirus, as well as impacted peoples. This monitoring is in stark contrast to the official narrative promoted by federal government agencies, whose data indicate underreporting. The Committee has already counted 829 indigenous people killed by Covid-19 and 34,402 infected in 158 indigenous peoples.
Fact Sheet – Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award
Date: Thursday, October 15
Where: streamed by APIB’s networks @ApibOficial
Press contact
Association of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil – APIB: [email protected]
Institute for Policy Studies – Letelier-Moffitt Award: [email protected]
24/Sep/2020
By blaming Indigenous Peoples and traditional communities again for the Amazon fire, Jair Bolsonaro consolidates lying as a political move during the General Assembly of the UN. Also, on Tuesday (22nd September) APIB filed a complaint with the Federal Supreme Court (STF) requesting the government to explain in court the lies it spreads and informed the UN about the attacks on Indigenous Peoples.
In his speech as Head of State at the 75th edition of the General Assembly of the United Nations, Jair Bolsonaro distorts reality to sell the image of a Brazil that does not exist. Thus, relieving his administration of any responsibility for actions to combat the pandemic and protect the environment. Bolsonaro’s main tool is lying.
Bolsonaro’s allegations aim to give credit to his administration for actions that were not theirs. For example, the initial amount proposed by the federal government for Auxílio Emergencial (Emergency Aid), one of the main economic policies created during the pandemic, was only R$200.00. But social mobilization with the National Congress ensured an increase to R$ 600.00. The Emergency Aid was also extended to a total of 9 installments (5 installments of R$600 and 4 t of R$300), which altogether amounts R$4,200, equivalent to about US$771,49. Thus, in his speech, Bolsonaro lied both about the government’s position in approving the Emergency Aid and the amount – which he claimed was about US$1,000 dollars.
In regard to the environment, since the beginning of his administration Bolsonaro has made 127 false or distorted announcements (data from the fact checking agency Aos Fatos). And, once more, the president chose to lie and attack.
He lied when he related the Amazon’s and the Pantanal’s fires to the fact that our forests are humid and blamed Indigenous Peoples for the fire outbreaks, shifting responsibility for criminal deforestation caused by landowners. Data from NASA monitoring system shows that 54% of Amazon’s fire outbreaks are related to deforestation. In Pantanal, the Brazilian Federal Police is investigating farms that were criminally burned in order to open pastures for livestock.
Misinformation as a strategy
Bolsonaro also claims that his administration is suffering disinformation campaigns.
It is increasingly evident that the president’s criterion for defining disinformation is based on what is convenient for his government. Criticism, data, formal questioning are part of the democratic rule of law. However, Bolsonaro’s administration has used official structures to promote and encourage attacks on any people, organization or media outlets that point out flaws or demand responsibility from his government.
For example, last Friday (18th September), General Augusto Heleno, State Minister Head of the Institutional Security Office, published declarations on social media criminalizing the Coalition of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB) and its leadership, and directly attacking Sonia Guajajara, APIB’s executive-coordinator, whose trajectory in defense of Indigenous and socio-environmental rights is internationally recognized. The Minister alleged that APIB has committed a crime against the State for denouncing the flagrant environmental crimes for which President Jair Bolsonaro must be held responsible.
Fearing for the safety of our leaderships, APIB filed today (22nd September) a complaint with the Federal Supreme Court (STF) requesting Minister Heleno to explain in court the lies and attacks he made to APIB and Sonia Guajajara.
“The Government and its representatives cannot place targets on the backs of leaders, activists or people who cause them inconvenience due to their political position, under penalty of, then, committing crimes that must be punished ”, emphasizes one of the excerpts from document that can be accessed in full here.
Today (22nd September) we have also sent a statement to the UN about Bolsonaro’s government attack on APIB, highlighting that Minister Heleno and Bolsonaro’s administration have made several intimidating accusations against our actions in defense of Indigenous Peoples
and that this is an indecorous attempt at criminalization, a completely inadequate posture for a Minister of State that underlines its anti-democratic character when it pursues those who fight for the environmental protection of ecosystems and the Indigenous peoples of Brazil.
The attack by Minister General Heleno, in addition to showing total ignorance about the history and construction of the APIB, confirms the use of disinformation as a political strategy by the Bolsonaro government, since it directs frivolous accusations on social media that encourage, above all, the criminalization of organized Indigenous movements. “The biggest crime that harms our country is the government’s failure to destroy our biomes, protected areas, illegal fires, land grabbing, deforestation and invasion of our lands and the theft of our wealth”, highlights an excerpt from APIB’s note published in response to the minister’s lying accusations.
It is important to note that, while the government abuses its power and uses smear campaigns to pursue an organization that acts to reduce the impact of Covid-19 on native peoples, more than 800 Indigenous persons have died so far, and about 32 thousand have been infected by the new coronavirus, according to data from the National Committee for Life and Indigenous Memory of APIB.
The Federal Government had to be judicially forced by the STF to present a specific combat plan to be applied in context of Indigenous peoples, contradicting Bolsonaro’s claim at the UN that he provided due assistance to them. On the other hand, when Congress Members presented a bill that provided an emergency plan to contain the damage of the pandemic, Bolsonaro vetoed parts of the bill such as the guarantee of access to drinking water, ease of access to emergency aid, among other fundamental rights.
18/Sep/2020
While the Brazilian Federal Government is passively watching the devastation of our biomes by criminal fires, the Head of the Institutional Security Office, General Heleno, has published a serious accusation on his social networks. The General claims that the Articulation of the Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB) and the indigenous leadership, Sonia Guajajara, committed a crime against the country.
APIB rejects the declaration. We understand that the biggest crime against our country is the omission displayed by this government in face of the destruction of our biomes, of our protected areas, of the illegal fires and land grabbing, of the deforestation and of the invasion of our lands and the theft of our wealth.
On the eve of the United Nations General Assembly, the whole world is witnessing these crimes, which are too big to be concealed. Instead of attacking individuals who work to protect the environment and guarantee the rights of Brazilian indigenous peoples, the authorities should use this moment to fulfill their constitutional oaths and present the nation with a plan to fight the fires that afflict the country and, in doing so, protect the economy and Brazil’s international reputation.
The accusations, in addition to being frivolous and false, are irresponsible, as they endanger the personal security of those mentioned.
APIB is evaluating appropriate response measures.
26/Aug/2020
Coordinated by APIB, ‘Maracá – Indigenous Emergency’ is a collective production directed by the following contibutors; Bia Lessa, APIB coordinator Sonia Guajajara, indigenous leader Célia Xakriabá, singer and composer Maria Gadú, Mídia Ninja coordinator Marielle Ramires, artist Laura Lima, designer Pedro Inoue and coordinator of 342 Amazônia Mari Stockler. The production was also made possible by Mídia NINJA who edited and co-produced the project and by Mídia India.
To save lives threatened by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB) is launching a web series this Weds 26th August at 19h. With more than 50% of people directly affected by Covid-19 and more than 27 thousand indigenous people infected by the virus, the series “Maracá – Indigenous Emergency” aims to mobilize international networks of support for the emergency plan drawn up by indigenous peoples to face this moment of crisis.
The eight-episode series will be available on APIB networks (@apiboficial) and will feature appearances from more than 200 personalities including artists, scientists, activists and indigenous and non-indigenous researchers from different countries. Episodes will be released twice-weekly on Wednesdays and Sundays, on the 26th and 30th of August and on the 2nd and 6th of September on APIB’s Youtube channel. Livestreams will also be held at 7 pm on the opening days of the episodes, with the participation of indigenous leaders and other supporters.
The webseries is a follow-up to the Maracá – Indigenous Emergency live event held on August 9 to draw attention to the seriousness of the Covid-19 crisis in Brazil and to increase collective efforts to face the pandemic. Among the primary objectives of the initiative is the collection of funds to finance relief actions in indigenous territories. This can be done virtually through a QR code and via the website (emergenciaindigena.apib.info).
Hundreds of notable artists and personalities from diverse bakgrounds came together to create Emergência Indígena, bringing together names including Maria Bethânia, Cacique Raoni, Ai WeiWei, Sonia Guajajara, Caetano Veloso, Joenia Wapichana, Dráuzio Varela, Tuyra Kayapó, Anitta, Kretã Kaingang, Criolo, Dinaman Tuxá, Jane Fonda, Nara Baré, Philip Glass, Cacique Babau, Wagner Moura, Kerexu Guarani, Camila Pitanga, Benki Ashaninka, Milton Nascimento, Djuena Tikuna, Thomas Lovejoy, Gean Pankararu, Margareth Menezes, Célia Xakriabá, Lenine, Shirley Krenak, Eliane Brum, Joziléia Kaingang, Chico Buarque, Eloy Terena, Alec Baldwin, Puyr Tembé, Mother Nivia, Paulo Tupiniquim, Sebastião Salgado, Fidelis Baniwa, Zé Celso, Marivelton Baré, Nando Reis, Marcos Xucuru, Emicida, Elizeu Guarani, Djamila Ribeiro, Lindomar Terena, Teresa Cristina, Giovani Krenak, Gaby Amarantos and many others.
‘We make our maracas resound so that indigenous lives impacted by the pandemic are remembered and to draw society’s attention to what is happening to us’, warns Sônia Guajajara, APIB coordinator. The maraca is a striking symbol of indigenous peoples and is present in rituals of both struggle and celebration.
The series format features eight episodes divided by theme and woven together with texts drawn from the speeches of Brazilian indigenous leaders (Chief Raoni, Sonia Guajajara, Kretã Kaingang, Marcos Xukuru, Shirley Krenak, among others). Speeches were read and interpreted by the invited personalities, and are accompanied by a montage of documentary footage and illustrations of indigenous peoples.
INDIGENOUS EMERGENCY
To date, 27,034 indigenous people have been infected by Covid-19 in Brazil and 717 have lost their lives to the disease, according to data from APIB’s National Committee for Indigenous Life and Memory. One hundred and fify-five indigenous ethnicities have been directly affected, an alarming situation that gets worse every day, because in addition to the threat of the virus, racism, illegal deforestation, agribusiness and the criminal action of loggers continues to advance into indigenous territories.
‘We are politically and spiritually prepared to continue to advance in the fight, seeking organs of control to guarantee the physical, cultural and territorial integrity of the indigenous peoples’, says Dinamam Tuxá, APIB coordinator.
Faced with the negligence of the Brazilian government in guaranteeing the protection of indigenous peoples during the pandemic, the emergency response plan, entitled Indigenous Emergency, was drawn up by APIB together with its grassroots organizations, doctors and researchers.
The coordinated campaign was launched at the end of June, informed by expert guidance on comprehensive and differentiated medical care, legal actions with a political impact and communication and information strategies on preventive measures.
17/May/2020
We, the traditional Councils of the Guarani & Kaiowá People, Aty Guasu (General Assembly of the Guarani & Kaiowá People), Kuñangue Aty Guasu (Great Assembly of Guarani & Kaiowá Women), RAJ (Guarani & Kaiowá Youth Movement), Aty Jeroky Guasu (General Assembly of Guarani & Kaiowá Shamans), hereby announce that we stand in the face of yet another massacre with the arrival of COVID-19 in our Tekohás (indigenous territories), and we make this appeal for our survival.
We are approximately 51,000 Guarani & Kaiowá, the second largest indigenous population in Brazil, located in the State of Mato Grosso do Sul, and we find ourselves in a State of Emergency. It has been 520 years of massacres and diseases, brought to us during our violent experience of colonisation in Brasil. We are left with few of our elders, the guardians of our traditional knowledge. Their lives and the lives of our communities are at risk, and the loss of the history of a People. Who will be held responsible for the death of our People?
In the first three days of tests, the Indigenous Reserve of Dourados (RID), the most populated reserve in Brasil, today (16th of May 2020) announced 10 confirmed cases of Coronavirus in the community. All Guarani & Kaiowá villages are under alert, setting up protective barriers and blocking access to their territories. The data presented by the Special Secretary of Indigenous Healthcare point to multiple suspected cases in diverse Guarani & Kaiowá territories, which extends beyond the under-reported number in Brazil as a whole.
The living conditions in indigenous villages don’t permit domestic isolation, and encourage rapid and large-scale transmission, and given the high lethality of COVID-19 we urgently need support areas for the isolation of confirmed patients.
We are in the largest Special Indigenous Healthcare District (DSEI) in Brasil, where 70% of patients are Guarani & Kaiowá. With the advance of Coronavirus in indigenous villages, following the epidemiological bulletin of the Secretary of Indigenous Healthcare (SESAI), the city of Dourados, with few hospital beds available, will not be able to support the number of indigenous people infected. The Secretary of Indigenous Healthcare is in URGENT need of being strengthened to confront this pandemic.
Local municipal authorities are weakened, but even so the Federal Government wishes to transfer indigenous healthcare to municipal bases. The situation presented by COVID-19 just serves to demonstrate the incapacity of municipalities to address the healthcare needs of indigenous peoples in our territories, such that not even emergency services manage to attend the villages furthest from urban centres.
The contact networks of the confirmed cases are being traced and tested. This brings concerns considering that the Indigenous Reserve of Dourados has the largest Guarani & Kaiowá population in the state, a total of 17,300 indigenous people. Medical teams are working to contain the spread of the virus, and following the confirmation of these first cases the indigenous healthcare response plan moves into its second stage, where wide- scale testing will be carried out among the indigenous population. The Secretary of Indigenous Healthcare only provides basic medical attendance, and urgently needs State Health Services (SUS) to take joint responsibility for providing indigenous populations with specialised medical support during the crisis.
We of the Aty Guasu (General Assembly of the Guarani & Kaiowá People), Kuñangue Aty Gauss (Great Assembly of Guarani & Kaiowá Women), RAJ (Guarani & Kaiowá Youth Movement), and Aty Jeroky Guasu (General Assembly of Guarani & Kaiowá Shamans) are calling for specialised healthcare support for indigenous people, the URGENT fortification of the emergency services which respects the specificities of our People: ambulances, hospital beds, alternatives to isolation in our community, protection for workers and their family contact networks, respirators, and spaces for our dead in the cemeteries.
All donations of humanitarian aid for survival are welcome: food, masks made with three layers of cotton, sanitation products for communities, water tanks for storage, and seeds to plant in our gardens.
We recommend that the entire Guarani & Kaiowá community stay in their Tekohás (indigenous territories), and that all leaders assume responsibility for blockading all entry points to indigenous territories to protect the health of the Guarani & Kaiowá People, permitting entry only to healthcare workers and humanitarian aid.
We thank all support and we pay tribute to all workers who are on the front lines of the Coronavirus pandemic. We express our solidarity to all the families who are in mourning.
This is not only a health crisis, it is the genocide of our people, whose treatment is racist and inhumane. IT IS URGENT! We are asking for HELP!
Signed,
ATY GUASU , KUNANGUE ATY GUASU, RETOMADA ATY JOVEM e ATY JEROKY GUASU.
Contact details for more information:
Aty Guasu – General Assembly of the Guarani & Kaiowá People
+55(0)67996574194 / +55(0)67996220420 / +55(0)67998949098
Kunangue Aty Guasu – Great Assembly of Guarani & Kaiowá Women
+55(0)679963422972 / +55(0)67999259450 / +55(0)67992737058 / +55(0)67997156477 / +55(0)67999415652
RAJ – Guarani & Kaiowá Youth Movement
+55(0)67996271302 / +55(0)67992250496
Guarani & Kaiowá Tekohas, 16th of May 2020.
15/May/2020
Mother Earth faces dark days. The world is going through its biggest social, economic and political crisis caused by the covid-19 pandemic, which just affects human beings, putting humanity in deep reflection and in resistance for the preservation of life. We indigenous peoples, just like non-indigenous people, also suffer from and are victimized by this virus that has already claimed thousands of lives on the planet.
It is time to reflect on our way of life until now. The various environmental crises such as global warming and intensive deforestation were the harbinger of what we are experiencing today, they were the warnings of mother earth that our way of existing needs be rethought and now we must practice solidarity.
For Brazil and the world, this viral war may be new, but for us Indigenous peoples it is not. We know it already because we were victims of such diseases that were used as strategies during the invasion of Brazil to exterminate our peoples, our identity and our way of life.
In Brazil we are going through difficult days, of great sadness and several crises. There have already been more than 10 thousand lives lost, including 64 indigenous victims, whose stories were cut short due to the deep neglect and absence of public policies capable of ensuring the preservation of those lives.
They are not just numbers, they are people, they are memories and stories of the Apurinã, Atikum, Baniwa, Baré, Borari, Fulni-ô, Galiby Kalinã, Guarani, Hixkaryana, Huni Kuin, Jenipapo Kanidé, Kariri Xocó, Kaingang, Karipuna, Kokama, Macuxi, Mura, Munduruku, Pandareo Zoro, Pankararu, Palikur, Pipipã, Sateré Maué, Tariano, Tembé, Tikuna, Tukano, Tupinambá, Tupiniquim, Warao and Yanomami, all affected by the pandemic!
The ongoing political crisis in Brazil, in addition to accentuating the shadows over our democratic system, shows the cruel face of fascism in motion, dividing the country into two poles; those who defend lives; and the unfortunate side of those who defend only the economic system, the large landowners and the land grabbing that are the historical basis of racism and provider of social and economic inequalities.
This wing is responsible for the spread of fascism and authoritarianism underway in Brazil; defending only the genocidal elites, it leaves clear its institutional racism. For this, they use the strategy of underreporting to downplay the impacts of this health crisis that heavily affects indigenous populations and the Brazilian people.
There are several bureaucracies established to question the self-declaration of indigenous peoples, such as in the case of the Kokama of the Amazon region who were questioned as to whether they were in fact indigenous and were demanded to present their RANI, that is, their indigenous identity documentation. What’s more, other peoples have been denied access to basic food provision, such as the Kaingang, who, when claiming these benefits, were told they needed to prove not only their real need, but also their identity as a people, compromising their food security and their social isolation.
It is clear that the Brazilian State creates barriers to prevent indigenous peoples from having their rights guaranteed and that it deliberately promotes a policy of social cleansing through its tactic of underreporting.
The starvation of Sesai (Special Secretariat for Indigenous Health), deliberately promoted by the Bolsonaro government with its gradual dismantling, only reinforces its genocidal and social cleansing nature. Since its inception, there has been a clear attempt to extinguish Sesai, from the model for hiring indigenous health professionals, to the weakening of social control by dissolving the Forum of Presidents of Indigenous Health District Councils (Condisi) and budget cuts. In other words, measures that express the determination to dismantle the differentiated indigenous health policy.
Throughout Brazil there are more than 30 ethnic groups impacted by fatalities from covid-19, of whom the majority are elderly, who are our living treasures, our source of ancestral and cultural continuity.
The attitude of suspending the demarcation of indigenous lands, the weakening of FUNAI’s constitutional powers through IN 09/2020, militarization under the command of environmental control bodies through Decree 10.341 / 2020, the attacks on the Atlantic Forest promoted by the Minister of the Environment, the advancement of illegal mining and the actions of rural militias who cause fires and illegal invasions in the Amazon, goaded by this government, are factors that directly contribute to the fragility in indigenous territories and are responsible for the intensification of land conflicts in the country. These measures have increased deforestation in the Amazon and left our biodiversity vulnerable across the country.
There are several difficulties to be measured in the fight against covid-19: scarcity of drinking water in indigenous territories to guarantee sanitary measures as recommended by the World Health Organization; transport for the most serious cases due to Covid-19 infection; travel to urban areas to get emergency aid; respect for health recommendations by agencies when dealing with indigenous people; adequate accommodation in Support Houses for Indigenous Health (Casais) and others …
There are many challenges in the face of the enormous humanitarian crisis facing civilization. To this end, we remain firm, as our ancestors did, who for more than 520 years have resisted, fighting, whether for the right to territory, to overcome dictates of the dictatorship, as well as other epidemics, the landowners’ bullets or the lengthy attempt to make our cultures and ways of life invisible.
In times of pandemic, the collective struggle and solidarity that has rekindled in the world will only be complete with indigenous peoples, as the cure will not only be in the principle of action, but in the activation of our human principles.
Coalition of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB)
Brazil, May 9th 2020.
09/May/2020
We, indigenous peoples, organizations and leaders from every region of Brazil, have been gathering for 16 years in the federal capital for our annual Free Land Camp (ATL), the Great National Indigenous Assembly. Due to the need for social isolation imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic, we have held ATL online with a great number of discussions, debates, seminars, testimonies and livestreams throughout the week. For 520 years we have been resisting all kinds of invasions; besides physical violence, forced labor, and the plunder and expropriation of our territories, diseases were used as the main biological weapon to exterminate us. Currently, we are being attacked by the worst virus in the history of our country: the Bolsonaro government. Thus we have come to publicly denounce the following issues.
We denounce to national and international public opinion, that we, indigenous peoples of Brazil, more than 305 peoples, speakers of 274 different languages, are in the crosshairs and victims of a genocidal project of the government of Jair Messias Bolsonaro. Since the beginning of his mandate, he has chosen us as one of his priority targets, saying that he would not demarcate an inch more of indigenous land, and that all land demarcation carried out until now would have been forged, and therefore should be revised.
As soon as he took office, Bolsonaro issued Provisional Measure 870/19, which determined the dismantling of the National Indigenous Foundation (FUNAI) and its powers, transferring the responsibility for environmental licensing and land demarcation to the Ministry of Agriculture, led by the Ruralist Caucus, a parliamentary faction renowned for its hostility towards our peoples, represented in the figure of the agriculturalist Minister Teresa Cristina, also known as the “muse of poison” [for her work to deregulate the use of pesticides]. The suspension of this Provisional Measure by the National Congress required a great deal of effort on our part and from our allies.
Bolsonaro dismantled public policies and bodies that had until then, albeit precariously, served our peoples, appointing people who are openly against indigenous rights, such as the president of the National Indigenous Foundation (FUNAI), federal police officer Marcelo Augusto Xavier da Silva. A former adviser for the Ruralist Caucus during the Parliamentary Inquiry Commission (CPI) of FUNAI / INCRA in 2017, which incriminated civil servants, indigenous leaders, indigenist representatives and attorneys, Xavier da Silva published in the Federal Official Gazette, on April 22nd 2020, the Normative Instruction No. 09 that “rules on the requirements, regulation and analysis to issue a declaration of limits recognition in relation to private properties in indigenous lands”. Since it aims to legitimize and allow the issuance of land titles to invaders of indigenous lands, this measure contravenes the institutional duty of the indigenous body to protect the rights and territories of indigenous peoples. In addition to this decision by the president of Funai, other measures have been taken against indigenous peoples and their rights, namely: (1) the decision to review or to cancel administrative procedures for the demarcation of indigenous lands, such as the Tekoha Guasu Guavirá territory, in Guaíra and Terra Roxa (Paraná state), of the Avá-Guarani people; (2) the replacement or impairment of Working Groups on identification and delimitation issues; (3) the dismantling or alteration of Boards of indigenous bodies; (4) workplace harassment and bullying of public servants; (5) the continuation of public policies for homologated lands only; (6) the irresponsibility of not equipping, even financially, regional coordinations and grassroots groups in order to protect our peoples and territories from the Coronavirus pandemic; (7) authorizations that allow fundamentalist pastors to enter indigenous territories.
Thus, this government, subservient to national economic interests and international capital, aims to reduce and restrict our rights, especially territorial rights, by encouraging illegal practices on our lands, such as: mining, deforestation, logging, cattle farming, monocultures and land grabbing, which is about to be legalized through the bill 910/19, currently progressing through Congress. Further to these illegal practices, there are the constant threats of large-scale mining operations and various infrastructure projects such as hydroelectric plants, transmission lines and roads. All of these are clear attempts to transform public lands into commodities.
All of these illicit and unconstitutional acts constitute a death project for our peoples. They entail the destruction of our forests, our rivers, biodiversity, our life sources. In short, they entail the destruction of Nature, Mother Earth, a heritage that has been preserved for thousands of years by our peoples and that til today strategically contributes to the preservation of environmental and climatic stability and to the well-being of humanity, providing important environmental services to the planet.
It is this heritage that ruralists, agribusiness and international corporations want to steal from us; by restricting or suppressing our constitutional rights, they are actually claiming that our original rights, and our very existence, constitute an obstacle to their enterprises and their so-called development plans. That is why they are trying to reverse the legal basis of our rights, nationally and internationally, through measures such as Opinion 01/17, the ‘time frame thesis’, which aims to limit our right to the lands we have traditionally occupied to only those occupied on October 5th, 1988, date of promulgation of the Federal Constitution, which in fact, simply recognises a right that was already ours, our original birthright to the land, a right we have had since before the colonial invasion and the emergence of the Brazilian national State.
Our extermination seems to be a matter of honor for the Bolsonaro government, which is taking advantage of the pandemic crisis to intensify its negligence towards our peoples. Thus, it is also trying to put an end to the differentiated public policies won over the last 30 years in the education system, alternative economic activities, environmental laws and especially in healthcare. After attempting to bring an end to the indigenous health subsystem (SESAI) via plans to municipalize or privatize it, the spread of coronavirus in our territories has made clear the government’s genuine desire for our extinction: it does not protect us from invaders, on the contrary, allowing them to contaminate our communities, which could lead to mass extinction, beginning with our elders, who are sources of tradition and wisdom for our peoples, for generations to come. And as if that wasn’t enough, the government encourages harassment and violence by private interests over our natural assets and sacred territories. The recent dismissal of the director of environmental monitoring at IBAMA (the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources) after his actions to crackdown on illegal mining in Tis in southern Pará, reveals the intentions of the current government.
Faced with this institutionalization of genocide by the Bolsonaro government, we alert national and international society, and demand the following actions:
1. The immediate demarcation, regularization, monitoring and protection of all indigenous lands;
2. The revocation of Opinion 001/17 of the Federal Attorney General;
3. The immediate removal of all invaders from indigenous lands – miners, land grabbers, loggers, farmers – given that they are destroying our natural resources along with our cultures, and, at this present time in particular, they are spreading diseases and COVID-19; constituting a serious risk for all peoples, especially indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation;
4. The adoption of measures that restrict the access of outsiders in indigenous communities, including miners, traders, loggers, as well as proselytizing fundamentalist religious groups that demonize, in our very own territories, our ways of life, spiritualities, knowledge, traditional ways of treating diseases;
5. The implementation of actions that aim to guarantee basic sanitation, drinking water, adequate housing and other equipment that ensure good sanitary infrastructure in the communities;
6. The adoption of measures that guarantee good nutritional status in all indigenous communities and the guarantee of a permanent plan for food security and sovereignty for our peoples and communities;
7. The facilitation of health teams to enter and remain in indigenous areas, ensuring that preventative actions to protect against the pandemic are effective and continued;
8. Adequate infrastructure and logistical support for health teams, providing them with all the necessary equipment for carrying out disease prevention, such as medicines, serums, gloves, masks, transportation, fuel;
9. The guarantee of referral hospitals – in municipal and state capitals – for medium and high complexity care, providing clinical tests and proper hospitalization for patients with COVID-19 and other diseases;
10. Financial resources for protective materials for all people in indigenous communities, such as clean water, soap, bleach, alcohol gel, gloves and masks, as well as adequate guidance in the importance of using these materials during the Covid-19 pandemic;
11. Provide adequate training for indigenous health workers, hygiene and environment officials, midwives and all those working in the health sector within communities, to protect and prevent COVID-19;
12. The immediate hiring of health professionals – doctors, nurses, nursing technicians, epidemiologists – to work in indigenous areas, to increase the current healthcare teams;
13. The immediate purchase of COVID-19 tests for as many people as possible in all indigenous communities, in order to get a proper diagnosis of the current situation of the pandemic within indigenous lands and, with this, to improve prevention, control and treatment;
14. End underreporting of infected indigenous people. All cases must be reported, regardless of whether they are in formally recognised indigenous lands or not, even those who live in urban areas. The Ministry of Health and the Emergency Public Health Operations Center must ensure that all indigenous cases and deaths are included in the Covid-19 Epidemiological Bulletin, in order that the complete data guide public policy;
15. The establishment of an Inter-institutional Crisis Committee, with seats guaranteed for indigenous peoples, appointed by APIB, to define strategies for the protection of indigenous peoples, aiming to jointly monitor activities related to territorial protection, food security, aid and benefits, raw materials and protocols against transmission, for all indigenous peoples. This Committee is not to be confused with the National Crisis Committee, which involves only the Special Secretariat for Indigenous Health, and excludes care for indigenous people living outside Indigenous Lands;
16. FUNAI and SESAI, as well as Funai’s Regional Coordinations (CDRs) and Special Indigenous Sanitary Districts (DSEIs) must be incorporated into the Emergency Public Health Operations Center at national, state and municipal levels;
17. The National Congress must shelve all legislative initiatives of the Ruralist Caucus and other sectors of capital that aim to restrict or suppress the fundamental rights of our peoples, especially the original right to the lands that we traditionally occupy;
18 The Judiciary must suspend all proposals for repossession presented by invaders, alleged owners or entrepreneurs, against indigenous peoples who have retaken their traditional lands;
19. The Supreme Federal Court must judge as soon as possible the Extraordinary Appeal – RE nº 1017365, as having General Repercussion, in order to establish, definitively and fully, the Indigenato, the original birthright of traditional occupation of our lands and territories, in order to correct the trajectory of aggression against the indigenous peoples of Brazil.
20. The Bolsonaro government must suspend the execution of any infrastructure (hydroelectric plants, roads, etc.) or agro-industrial works that may impact our territories, since they allow for the presence of non-indigenous people, potential agents for the spread of Coronavirus and other harmful diseases to our peoples and communities.
21. Finally, we demand the revocation of Normative Instruction 09, of April 16th, 2020, published by the president of FUNAI, in the April 22nd edition of the Official Gazette (DOU), which allows, unlawfully and unconstitutionally, the transfer of land titles to private individuals within indigenous areas protected by Brazilian law. The National Congress must also shelve Provisional Measure 910/19, which attempts to legalize the criminal act of land grabbing in Indigenous Territories, Conservation Units and other territories of traditional communities.
To our peoples and organizations we say: always resist, with the wisdom received from our ancestors, for the present and future generations of our peoples. May national and international solidarity redouble in this moment of death, which is reinforced by the negligence of the Bolsonaro Government, but at the same time, a moment for the creation of a new era for our peoples, for Brazilian society and for humanity as a whole.
For the right to live. Indigenous Blood Not a Single Drop More.
Brazil, April 30th, 2020.
XVI Free Land Camp 2020
Coalition of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB)
National Indigenous Mobilization
08/Apr/2020
Given the Bolsonaro government’s complete neglect in the face of the current crisis, indigenous peoples have taken their own measures to protect communities from the spread of Covid-19. While a national action plan to combat the pandemic has not been established, indigenous peoples have turned to state governments. On April 3, 2020, the Coalition of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB) sent a letter to the governors of all 26 states and the Federal District requesting the adoption of special measures to protect indigenous peoples in face of threats from the Covid-19 pandemic.
The impacts of the coronavirus pandemic are increasing every day in Brazil. Indigenous peoples are in a situation of great vulnerability, with a real risk that this new virus will cause another genocide, with the potential to decimate whole communities. The arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic among indigenous peoples and territories in Brazil emerges as a scenario of extreme concern, which must be immediately addressed by health authorities and indigenous organizations.
So far the death of two indigenous people has been confirmed. A woman from the Borari people in the municipality of Santarém, in Pará, died on March 20 and another indigenous person, from the Murá people, died on April 5 in the city of Manaus, in Amazonas. And four indigenous people of the Kokama people, including a baby, tested positive for Covid-19 this week, in the municipality of Santo Antônio do Içá, also in Amazonas State.
Indigenous peoples are not only exposed to the novel coronavirus, but also to the marked social vulnerability that makes it difficult to face the epidemic, as well as concerns with food security. Today, many indigenous communities need to buy food in town and depend on social programs, which requires additional measures to help communities implement social isolation strategies.
A number of existing illnesses make indigenous people vulnerable to coronavirus complications. This situation increases the need for access to services in specialized hospitals in capital cities. Indigenous territories are often distant from these towns and do not have adequate essential public services. This situation makes it difficult to identify and/or treat severe cases of coronavirus in indigenous populations.
APIB also reiterates concerns with the situation of indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation and recent contact (“uncontacted peoples”) in the Amazon. APIB proposes the adoption of protection strategies to prevent the entrance of outsiders into these territories, to help prevent the entry of the coronavirus.
APIB has consulted in depth with indigenous healthcare specialists, and proposes the following 10 urgent action points to help protect our communities from the spread of Covid-19:
1. Coordination between all state and municipal health secretariats with indigenous health agencies in order to guarantee access to information on the epidemiological situation and the actions being carried out in each indigenous territory and village, as well as among indigenous populations in urban areas;
2. Guarantee that emergency plans for the care of critically ill patients in the states and municipalities include the indigenous population, making the flow of indigenous patients and requests for assistance explicit and in a timely manner, in conjunction with indigenous health agencies;
3. Articulation with health secretariats, social assistance, and other social policies to enable the isolation and quarantine of those indigenous people who are in transit returning to their territories and need to take these preventive measures before their entry or in the case of suspected infections or confirmed cases of coronavirus;
4. Provision of rapid tests for Covid-19 and supply of these tests to all Special Indigenous Sanitary Districts in order to control the entry of indigenous people who are in urban centers and seek to return to their territories. Tests must be prioritized to control the entry and exit of indigenous territories, in order to ensure the virus does not spread widely among this population;
5. Inclusion of indigenous populations as a priority group in speeding up the provision of the annual flu vaccine;
6. Guarantee of stocks and provision of Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) for indigenous healthcare workers, as well as suspected and confirmed cases and their family members who may come to town with them;
7. For the duration of this health crisis, ensure the supply of medicines such as Oseltamivir, indicated for the groups most at risk of complications from the coronavirus, which in this case includes indigenous peoples, according to protocols from the Ministry of Health;
8. Support for Special Indigenous Sanitary Districts (DSEI) for training their health professionals to deal with and monitor the coronavirus, as in indigenous territories access to virtual communication is often precarious and insufficient;
9. Provision of hygiene materials and PPEs for all Indigenous Health Centers for patients and their caretakers, as well as health professionals;
10. Include indigenous organizations that are members of APIB in planning and emergency meetings in each state, in order to ensure that the specific needs and realities of indigenous peoples are addressed.
