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.
Humankind will face its worst period since World War II. Epidemics are terrible for any society, but we know that for indigenous peoples the impact is even greater. Influenza, smallpox and measles were some of the diseases brought to our territories by non-indigenous people, and slaughtered many of our ancestors.
Coronavirus is another threat. With the fast worldwide spread of the pandemic, it is urgent that we focus our attention on indigenous peoples. The effects on us can be can be devastating! Our communal way of live could enable the fast spread of the virus in our territories if any of us get infected.
Donate now to APIB – Coalition of the Indigenous Peoples of Brazil, with the collected amount we will be able to buy food, medicine and hygiene material for our villages.
Undoubtedly, we, indigenous peoples, are one of the most exposed and vulnerable populations in the face of the current Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout history, we have always been the victims of successive invasions not only by the use of physical violence, firearms and forced labor, but also through the diseases carried by invaders, such as the flu, smallpox and measles, even in the 20th century, particularly during the military dictatorship. Through this day, we suffer from illnesses brought from the outside world to our communities: cardiovascular problems, hypertension, diabetes, gastrointestinal diseases, kidney problems, STDs and respiratory diseases. Coronavirus is another of these threats, another plague produced by capitalist accumulation, therefore, it has a political and an economic origin, and now it has become a public health crisis. We should not have to pay for problems unrelated to our way of life. On the contrary, it is up to the State to provide measures in order to mitigate its historically acquired debts with our peoples and communities.
The Coalition of the Indigenous Peoples of Brazil – APIB therefore publicly demands from the current government an Emergency Action Plan, that includes, among others, the following measures:
• Guarantee the protection of our territories, regardless of the regularization phase they are in, thereby guaranteeing the protection of our peoples, especially indigenous groups in voluntary isolation and the recently contacted.
• Prevent the invasion of indigenous territories by land grabbers, illegal squatters, miners, loggers and others who practice illegal activities in our territories.
• Stop any evictions of communities that have taken action to recuperate and reoccupy their traditional lands, as they seek to guarantee their customary rights, ownership and usufruct.
• Strengthen and allocate additional budget to the indigenous health subsystem – the Special Secretariat for Indigenous Health – SESAI, the Special Indigenous Health Districts (DSEIs) and the Indigenous Health Centers (CASAIs), equipping them to face the new Coronavirus pandemic, especially as many of them are already over-crowded.
• Prevent access to indigenous territories by people who are not authorized nor performing essential assistance services – including tourists and anyone with any other purposes that have not been authorized by our leaders.
• Improve the health subsystem’s preventative care measures to avoid risks of Coronavirus contamination spreading to the villages, especially those close to urban centers or when hospital assistance is necessary. Any Contingency Plan must be widely discussed with the representative bodies of our peoples.
• Immediately revoke FUNAI’s Ordinance No. 419 / PRES., of March 17, 2020, as has also been recommended by the National Health Council (CNS) and the 6th Coordination and Review Chamber of the Federal Public Ministry / PGR. The Ordinance, mainly its 4th article, removes the responsibility of protect isolated peoples from the General Coordination of Isolated Indigenous Peoples, transferring it to regional offices, despite the fact that regional offices do not have qualified staff or structural conditions for such specific and delicate work. For APIB, FUNAI’s ordinance violates both national and international law, including the Federal Constitution, the Statute of Indigenous peoples, Internal Regulations of FUNAI, determinations of the Ministry of Health and of SESAI, the American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and resolutions from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and WHO. It also constitutes an act of irresponsibility as it poses more risk to the integrity of isolated and recently contacted peoples. The Ordinance can only be understood to be motivated by unclear interests, which have already been reported on other occasions by our organization.
Finally, in the absence of political will from the current government to develop a Contingency Plan for disease outbreaks and epidemics, and considering the specificities of our peoples – a communal way of life that facilitates the fast spread of Coronavirus – we request the provision of diagnostic tests for indigenous health units with the utmost urgency from international organizations, especially the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).
For the well-being of our elders, the keepers of our wisdom and tradition, and of our children, our future generations, we demand more respect for the specific and differential treatment guaranteed indigenous peoples in the 1988 Constitution.
The undersigned organizations – representing indigenous peoples, anthropologists, social, environmental and human rights defenders – that make up the National Indigenous Mobilization (MNI) network express their categorical rejection of Bill No. 191/20, submitted by the President of the Republic, Jair Bolsonaro, to the Federal Congress on February 6 of this year. The bill purports to regulate research into and exploration of mineral resources, hydrocarbons, and hydroelectric power on indigenous lands. The bill fulfills many of this President’s twisted dreams. Since being inaugurated he has defended the economic exploitation of indigenous territories, a policy that represents a nightmare scenario for indigenous peoples.
Once again Bolsonaro has shown his disrepect for democracy, the rule of law, human rights, the Federal Constitution, and international treaties recognizing indigenous rights that Brazil has historically respected. Bill 191/20, recently submitted to the Chamber of Deputies, proposes to open up indigenous territories to the exploitation of minerals, water resources and even agriculture. The law’s proponents claim they merely wish to fulfill the Brazilian Constitution, which clearly expresses the federal government’s duty to protect indigenous territories.
The President and his supporters’ real intent, however is to open indigenous lands up to exploitation by Brazilian and international capital. This project would sentence thousands of indigenous peoples to death. Under this proposal indigenous territories would no longer be recognizable. It would lead to the violation of indigenous peoples’ rights and autonomy, which are secured by law in the Brazilian Constitution and in international treaties. The bill would irreversibly damage indigenous peoples’ exclusive sovereignty over their territory.
Indeed, the project proposes to move indigenous peoples from a state of sovereignty to a state of guardianship, in which they no longer make decisions over how to manage their territory. Instead, the President could move forward with economic development projects on indigenous territories by submitting the action to a purely procedural “consultation.” It also hands the administration of financial resources over to an advisory council that may consist of only three indigenous people and that will be able to decide on its own which groups legitimately represent the interests of affected indigenous communities.
This bill is authoritarian, neocolonial, violent, racist, and genocidal, especially with regard to voluntarily isolated and recently contacted indigenous peoples. The bill resumes an ethnocidal and genocidal perspective against indigenous peoples, contrary to what the Federal Constitution advocates in Articles 231 and 232, because, in addition to eliminating protective policies, it alters the status of currently recognized indigenous territories and points in the direction of no longer recognizing any new indigenous territories. Such policies also contradict various international treaties that Brazil is a party to. We express our utter repudiation and dissent with regard to this bill and its unpredictable impacts. We are united in struggle with the Indigenous Peoples of Brazil in defense of the full extent of their rights as the original inhabitants of this country.
Brasilia, February 10, 2020
Signed:
Articulação dos Povos Indígenas do Brasil – APIB
Articulação dos Povos Indígenas do Nordeste, Minas Gerais e Espirito Santo – APOINME
Articulação dos Povos Indígenas do Sul – ARPINSUL
Associação Floresta Protegida
Associação Indígena Moratu do Xingu – AIMIX
Aty Guasú
Centro de Trabalho Indigenista – CTI
Comissão Guarani Yvyrupa
Comitê Nacional de Defesa dos Territórios Frente a Mineração – CNDTFM
Conselho das Aldeias Wajãpi – Apina
Conselho Indigenista Missionário – CIMI
Conselho Terena
Coordenação das Organizações Indígenas da Amazônia Brasileira – COIAB
Indigenistas Associados – INA
Instituto de Estudos Socioeconômicos – INESC
Instituto Internacional de Educação no Brasil – IIEB
Instituto de Pesquisa e Formação Indígena – IEPÉ
Instituto Socioambiental – ISA
Operação Amazônia Nativa – OPAN
Rede de Cooperação Amazônica – RCA
Greenpeace Brasil
Instituto, Sociedade, População e Natureza – ISPN,
Movimento dos Atingidos pela Mineração – MAM
REJECTION MOTION AGAINST BOLSONARO GOVERNMENT PROJECT TO REGULATE MINING, ENERGY VENTURES AND AGRIBUSINESS IN INDIGENOUS LANDS
The Coalition of the Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB) comes to the public to express its vehement rejection of the displays of visceral hate and racism that the Bolsonaro government has, since its first day of government, routinely and publicly expressed against the indigenous peoples, organizations and leaders of Brazil, in the last few days materialized by the announcement of a bill that aims to define
“specific conditions for search and mining of mineral resources, including artisanal mining and oil and gas, and production of hydroelectric energy in indigenous lands”, an announcement made up with false good intentions and rhetoric that induce the co-optation and division of the peoples, distorting the real sense of autonomy, to actually also authorize the invasion of indigenous territories through other ventures such as extensive agriculture, livestock production and other predatory ventures.
The vile statement that “The Indian is a human being just like us. He has a heart, he has feelings, he has soul, he has desires, he has needs…” repeats the ethnocentrism of European invaders, who more than 500 years ago massacred millions of our brothers, a practice that nowadays constitutes a non-bailable racial crime.
Bolsonaro government’s “dream” is actually the will to serve the economic interests that boosted its candidacy and that support his government, even if it implies total disregard for national and international legislation that guarantees our fundamental rights, our original right, congenital right, to a traditional occupation of our lands and territories, our right to exclusive possession and enjoyment, and our right to consultation, free, prior and informed consent on any administrative and legislative measures that affect us.
It has to be said, the majority of indigenous peoples and communities in Brazil do not share the desires of a minority of indigenous individuals who delude themselves and bend to the camouflaged evil intentions of this government.
The APIB, therefore, denounces Bolsonaro Government’s manipulation of our right to autonomy and repudiates this death project that is planned in indigenous territories at any cost, with irreversible impacts particularly on isolated and recently contacted indigenous peoples, and calls to all its base and movements, organizations and supportive segments of national and international society to join us in this battle for life and wellbeing not only of indigenous peoples but of all humanity and the planet.
In 2019, the first year of Bolsonaro government, we felt in our skin the cruel dismantling of the State, of social rights and of public policies achieved hroughout the past 31 years, since the 1988’s constitutional pact.
The year was marked by the exponential increase in intencional fires and the deforestation of protected areas in the Amazon and the Cerrado, affecting mainly indigenous territories and conservation units – with interference of land grabbers, loggers, miners, large livestock farmers, among others. Such crimes have been added to the burst of Brumadinho dam, as well as to the murders of environmentalists, quilombola and indigenous leaders, guardians of the forest, and also to the oil spill on the northeast beaches, under late reaction by the government. In the cities, black children and youngsters, and women keep on dying by actions of police force. And the underemployed people reached 24 million, accompanied by 12 million unemployed and 4 million people in a state of misery.
On the indigenous peoples situation, there was a outright affront to national and international legislation that ensures the rights to territory and identity as well as differentiated public policies. Towards the same direction, the government took a stand against environmental legislation and national environmental policy, configuring an ethnocidal, genocidal and ecocidal government profile.
Social organizations and movements, however, endured. Indigenous peoples and organizations have been mobilized throughout the year, including participations in spheres of international influence.
It is within that context that, on January 20 and 21, APIB scheduled a meeting for further enhancing the analysis of the national context and of the indigenous policy that is threatening the existence and fundamental rights of the peoples of the country.
Throughout the meeting, there will be discussions on struggle strategies, the planning of an anual schedule of actions, and the analysis of the main current threats. Coordinators and leaders of APIB from all regions of the country will take part on the meeting.
Another Guajajara was murdered. Erisvan Soares Guajajara was 15 years old. Son of Luécia Guajajara and Luzinho Guajajara, he was murdered in Amarante where Atibóia indigenous land is located.
The impunity keeps on runnig over many lives and racist speeches on courts keeps generating new victims.
Besides using national force as an emergencial measure, urgently of accurate public policys to access this persecution is needed. We urge for proper public policies and punishment to the deforesters, land grabbers, gold miners and to all kinds of criminials who now feel empowered to invade our territories, lands of our own by right, assured by the Federal Constitution.
We need efficient policys for inspection and the fortification of Indigenists Bodies on the contrary of this set of measurements that awards instead the invasors and land grabbers as the Provisional Measure, which is about landholding regularization in the country – published on the last 10th, or yet this set of measures which dismantles the Indigenists’ and environmentals’ organs.
We need health care policies for the ills and to prize scientific knowledge, our traditions and our tradicional knowledges. We need a singular education for the young people, children, sons and daughters, nephews and grandchildren, more Indigenous schools in our villages. We need investments in PNGATI (National Policy on Environmental and Territorial Management of Indigenous Land) and in policies developed under leaderships of our own Indigenous people.
We will stand fighting until the last Indegenous person stands, that’s how we are doing since 519 year ago. Our lives are public service for humanity. We are the ones who guarantee the air you breath, the water you drink and the balance of the planet’s climate. Without us there will not exist future for humankind. Therefore fighting for Indegenous lives is to fight for those who you love too. This fight is for all of us, it is a fight of gender, race, it’s an environmental fight, class struggles, for human rights for life.
Earlier this year we held a national campaign called Red January. With the motto Indigenous Blood: Not a Single Drop More, we denounced the start of the offensive against indigenous peoples that began as soon as Jair Bolsonaro was inaugurated President. Immediately on taking office, he turned policies in support of Indigenous Peoples over to the worst agribusiness interests, as well as fanning the flames of hate speech and prejudice against Indigenous Peoples.
Last Saturday, December 7, another two Indigenous leaders were murdered: Firmino Silvino Prexede Guajajara, Chief of Silvino Village (Cana Brava Indigenous Land), and Raimundo Guajajara, Chief of Descendência Severino Village (Lagoa Comprida Indigenous Land), both in Maranhão state – where just 35 days ago the Forest Guardian Paulo Paulino Guajajara was also killed.
These crimes reflect the escalation of hate and barbarism inflamed by Jair Bolsonaro’s government, which is attacking us daily, denying our right to exist and promoting the historical illness of racism, which Brazil still suffers from.
We are adrift without protection from the State, which is not fulfilling its constitutional duties. The current administration is acting outside the law, criminal in its political practice and is operating in a genocidal way, seeking to expel us from our territories, killing our culture, making our roots bleed.
The tension, persecution and lack of safety felt by Brazil’s Indigenous Peoples is increasing. We are being attacked, wiped out and criminalized. An attack on Indigenous life is an attack against humanity, as we Indigenous Peoples of the world defend 82% of global biodiversity. In Brazil, we are almost a million Indigenous People. We protect 13% of Brazilian ecosystems. We are in the whole country. We are among the planet’s richest cultures, represented by 305 peoples and 274 languages, and over 180 cases of peoples in voluntary isolation.
Much is said about fighting climate change, but it must be understood that our survival will guarantee the preservation of what is most important to the future of humanity. Mother Earth cannot handle another 50 years of the current predatory economic model. We know that we are in danger and that there is no more time.
We demand Justice, and that measures are taken immediately! We demand that the government authorities investigate the facts and punish the criminals who perpetrated these murders strictly, so that the feeling of impunity doesn’t motivate more criminal actions against our people, brutally culling Indigenous lives.
Here at COP25, where we’re participating with a delegation of over 20 Indigenous People from across Brazil, we demand that Indigenous Peoples’ rights are respected in fully implementing the Paris Climate Accord.
To our friends and allies from civil society around the world, we also ask for help. This will be Red December! We call for a global mobilization. Our people in Maranhão state occupied BR 216 Highway, seeking justice for all of the murders, and we need everybody to join the fight, make it a collective struggle.
This will be the Red December for Indigenous Peoples and peoples of the planet, and our right to exist. Indigenous Blood: Not a Single Drop More!
It is with profound sadness and outrage that I express my deepest and most sincere condolences to the family members of Firmino Silvino Prexede Guajajara and Raimundo Guajajara who at this moment are feeling the pain and sadness of losing a loved one to such cruelty, that made victims among the Guajajara People today. The Indigenous People lived in the villages Silvino (Cana Brava Indigenous Land) and Severino Descendência village (Lagoa Comprida Indigenous Land), both in the state of Maranhão, where, 35 days ago had already gone through the murder of Paulo Paulino Guajajara, who acted as a guardian of the forest.
I feel a mix of pain and anger toward yet another crime that hovers over my Guajajara people. This crime is a reflection of the escalation of hate and cruelty incited by the nefarious political spectrum of Jair Bolsonaro’s perverse and racist government, which continues to attack us daily, denying our right to exist and inciting the historical sickness that is the racism the Brazilian people still suffers.
We are adrift, without the protection of the Brazilian state, whose constitutional role is being neglected by the current authorities. The federal government is an outlaw government, criminal in its political practice, and operates in a genocidal manner to expel us from our territories, butchering our culture, bleeding our roots.
The state of tension, insecurity and persecution against the Indigenous Peoples of Brazil only increases. We are being attacked, decimated, and it is always worth remembering that an attack on Indigenous life is an attack on humanity itself, since, Indigenous Peoples from around the world, are the defenders of 82% of all global biodiversity.
No more bloodshed!
Enough of impunity!
We demand action be taken immediately and justice to be enforced!
We demand that the right authorities clarify the facts by rigorously punishing these criminals so that the sense of impunity no longer motivates criminal actions against our people, brutally striking Indigenous lives down.
The indigenous women from the most diverse peoples of Brazil make a call for everybody to join in this great global action for climate and life on the planet. On this Friday, December 6th, social movements, activists, environmentalists, young people and all those whounderstand the climate emergency will march together at the Climate March that takes place during COP 25, in Madrid . Take part at it too, organize your collectives, call friends, activists and social movements to speak up wherever you are on Friday.
Greed is killing our forests, our woods, our rivers; attacking our right of being and existing in our diversity. The world needs other models of development, we have to put a stop on this killing! Indigenous women are at the forefront of this struggle for the defense of mother earth and the preservation of their traditional ways of life! Join us!
