Other Kayap indigenous people block Brazil’s BR-163 national highway while protesting against government measures on indigenous lands to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in Novo Progresso, Paro state, Brazil, August 18, 2020.
Lucas Landau / Reuters
In mid-August, dozens of Kayap indigenous warriors blocked a road in brazil’s Amazonian state of Paro, which was not an easy action by the government to prevent COVID-19 in its territories and condemned the recent influx of foreigners.
People seeking to exploit, exploit or capture indigenous lands in particular, greater deforestation in the Kayap spaces of the pandemic.
A week after the demonstration, gunmen attacked a checkpoint set up through another organization in Kayap to protect their village. Outlaws fired 30 shots, but no one was injured.
Despite emerging tensions, Brazilians say they are running in defense of indigenous peoples and have delivered thousands of basic hygiene kits and food baskets.
“We, indigenous communities and foreigners, prevent foreigners from entering their lands and convince them not to leave their territory,” General Alexandre Ribeiro, commander of military operation COVID-19, told state television in June.
But many indigenous peoples say that the Brazilian government overlooked them during the pandemic.
Related: Brazil’s indigenous communities suffer coronavirus losses
“At first, our communities didn’t even get medicine. Not even a mask. And medical groups have gone to communities and led our people,” said Mario Nicacio, who is helping lead the Network of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB), one of the largest indigenous coordination groups in the region.
By the end of May, the country’s indigenous agency, FUNAI, had spent 18% of its budget on coVID-19 protective indigenous communities.
According to a report published last month through brazil’s Institute of Socioeconomic Studies, the government actually spent less on indigenous health care during the pandemic than last year in the same period.
“Our conclusion is that we face state paralysis, but a paralysis that administrators constantly deny,” said Leila Saraiva, one of the studio’s authors. “It’s because we know how serious this is for Aboriginal communities. “
Brazil’s indigenous teams remain vulnerable to the spread of coronavirus, which has led them to take action on the issue.
Lucas Landau / Reuters
In July, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro vetoed the provisions of an invoice that would have required the government to provide indigenous peoples with blank water, non-public protective equipment, seal products, staple food and emergency medical assistance.
Meanwhile, Brazil’s Supreme Court has called on the government to take action for COVID-19 indigenous communities and foreigners seeking to benefit from the land.
“We all agree that we want to deal with the invasion factor and want to eliminate them. And we will focus our power on a plan with a imaginable schedule to achieve those goals,” Judge Luis Barroso said in August.
This week, Barroso approved a government plan to establish fitness checkpoints along roads in many indigenous spaces to stop the spread of the virus and block foreigners. But the government says implementation will take place until December.
At the same time, Brazil’s indigenous communities have been forced to act since the beginning of the pandemic. COAIB began implementing its COVID-19 emergency plan just a few weeks after the virus arrived.
“We have acquired non-public protective equipment, medicines and even immediate testing for COVID-19,” Nicacio said. “We had to buy them because the federal government still doesn’t test other Aboriginal people. And we’ve established number one fitness clinics in communities.
They also helped the word in communities on how to protect themselves against the virus.
“We have acquired non-public protective equipment, medicines and even immediate testing for COVID-19. We had to buy them because the federal government isn’t testing the Aboriginal people yet.
“We’ve been here since four in the morning, after taking the decision to close our way to the community, to oppose this virus that’s spreading in the air and in the world,” Said Patax holder Jovino Braz. , in a YouTube video posted in May.
In the clip, he is joined through nine village members, who have created what they call a “health barrier. “It’s necessarily a checkpoint, where they only allow others they trust. and are armed with soap and detergent bottles so visitors can be disinfected before passing by.
Barriers like this have been erected through indigenous communities throughout Brazil.
APIB, the country’s largest indigenous organization, has presented its own foreign emergency and crusade plan to mobilize and budget its advocacy tables opposed to COVID-19.
“We need to create places of choice where other inflamed people can isolate themselves,” said S. Guajajara, a renowned indigenous activist and head of the organization, at the three-hour live launch of the advertising effort on August 9. care in communities so that our other people don’t have to be taken to hospitals in the city.
RELATED: Bolsonaro from Brazil to exploit indigenous lands, illegally
The challenge, as she and many others point out, is that Brazil’s indigenous peoples face only COVID-19, they also face land invasions, deforestation, large forest fires and situations of constant demand with government officials to enforce their rights.
But they say the strength of the planet in its survival and promised to fight.
“We will remain silent,” Nicacio said, Aboriginal lives are at stake. “
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