RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – Chief Raoni Metuktire, an indigenous leader who has a symbol of the struggle to maintain the Amazon rainforest in Brazil, has been hospitalized with symptoms of pneumonia and tested positive for the new coronavirus, the Raoni Institute announced Monday. .
The head of the nearly 90-year-old Kayap ethnic organization has no fever and no oxygen breathing, the institute said.
Raoni has already met with several European leaders to denounce Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s calls for the economic progression of the indigenous lands of the Amazon rainforest, who argues that this progression is for the economic prosperity of the local population and the country.
About 30,000 indigenous people have contracted the virus and more than 700 have died since the start of the pandemic, according to knowledge disseminated through the Association of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil, a non-profit group. On August 4, a Supreme Court ruling required the government to submit within 60 days a plan to create fitness barriers for coVID-19 indigenous communities.
A month ago, Raoni was hospitalized for 10 days after suffering diarrhoea and dehydration at his home in the Xingo Indigenous Reserve in Mato Grosso state, Raoni also had low blood pressure, anemia and ulcers and had to receive two blood transfusions.
For years, Raoni campaigned for the coverage of indigenous territories in the Amazon. A 1978 documentary, “Raoni: The Struggle for the Amazon,” contributed to his fame, as did an excursion in 1989 with British musician Sting.