NOVO PROGRESSO, Brazil (AP) – Dozens of indigenous people, many of them painted with black paint representing their pain and fighting spirit, blocked on Monday a main road in the Brazilian Amazon to pressure the government.is helping them from COVID-19.
Other people from Kayapo Mekragnotire blame the government for the deaths of 4 of their elders and the infection of dozens more on their lands in the southern state of Pará, near the city of Novo Progresso. had spread the new coronavirus among them because there were no restrictions on access to their land.
Approximately 400 other Kayapos Mekragnotire people live on 15 separate teams in the region.
They reported that they had few doctors, uncommon non-public devices and no large beds in the care units nearby for patients with COVID-19.They wore yellow, green and blue feathers, and wielded bows, arrows and clubs.Some had colorful beads, bracelets, and headbands of Brazilian football clubs.
“The medical care here is precarious. There are not enough fitness care staff to take care of the situation.We want to press in the middle of the pandemic,” said Doto Takak-Ire, leader of Kayapo Mekragnotire.”We want more non-public hygiene products, more masks.If the government had done its job, we wouldn’t be here in the middle of the pandemic.”
They said they would leave their logs and tires on the road until the federal government came to negotiate.
Protesters were given mask after blocking the road, yet few seemed to know how to wear them.Alexandra Santos, an officer in the state-run indigenous fitness care system, SESAI, said the Kayapos Mekragnotire were learning to shield themselves from the virus.It took their temperatures, yet did not have without delay to be had coronavirus tests.
Brazil’s ministry of fitness says the virus has inflamed some 20,000 indigenous people and killed at least 338, according to experts, both figures are greatly underestimated.indicates that more than 25,000 indigenous people have become inflamed across the country and 678 have died from the virus.
Tens of thousands of Brazilians are shown to have died from the virus in the country, and the actual number would be higher.
Bei Kayapo, an indigenous leader, said the death of the 4 elders was harsh.
“They are our history, our museums. They have all our people,” he said.
The Kayapo Mekragnotire also need the Brazilian federal government to increase the damage payment by the structure of a road near the land of Kayapo and consult them on a proposed rail allocation for the transport of soybeans and maize, which would also be their region.
The federal government did not respond to his call and President Jair Bolsonaro’s management did not respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.
Many trucks on the blocked road carried boxes full of corn, Amazon farmers set fire to their plots at this time of year to prepare them for soybean planting.Smoke from the chimneys that began weeks ago hovered over the blocked road.
Police at the scene said protests in the afterlife had blocked the road for two days and that Kayapo Mekragnotire does not plan to disband so temporarily this time.
“We can spend more time than that now, ” said Takak-Ire.”We have families who mourn their dead, they couldn’t be here.We don’t need to come back next month with fewer people because of this disease.”