A pandemic or genocide

Grupo de Trabalho Ecologia(s) politica(s) desde o Sul/Abya Yala

In Abya Yala, the new corona virus is attacking the people who already suffer from colonial domination, the omission, or the racist abandonment of the States and their inviability by national societies that continue to reconstitute the indigenous and black people as part of their nations. We warn that, without taking the necessary measures, we are facing a new and imminent genocide that would add to the long history of the death of indigenous and black people on the American continent.

No BrazilWhere a death policy has been established by Bolsonaro's authoritarian government, there are still cases of contagion of the new corona virus in indigenous communities, quilombos and favelas, especially in the states of Amazonas and Pará. The Kokama case is symptomatic of State negligence: the health agents themselves infected an entire community where there have now been more than 12 deaths (among the 77 deaths and 308 infected indigenous people in Brazil, according to the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil, APIB, on May 12(1). Deaths continue to be denied by the federal government. São Gabriel da Cachoeira, a region in the northeast of Amazonia, in which 90% of the population is indigenous from more than 20 different ethnicities, is already experiencing the unbridled expansion of the new corona virus and faces precarious attention from the State, with more than 137 cases, 10 deaths and only seven respirators. From this situation, APIB denounced the end of its general assembly on May 09, a policy of extermination by the State, the genocidal elite and institutional racism(2). The quilombos no Para e no Amapá present several deaths reported by the National Coordenação de Articulação das Comunidades Negras Rurais Quilombolas (Conaq), which launched or manifested Quilombola Lives Matter(3).

No PeruThe indigenous people demand protection protocols for their communities, given that many of the infected bacteria do not distribute food to the people of the regional governments. The government responds with greater repression by extending the curfew. The public health system, already deficient, has collapsed. Still, extractive industries continue to operate and are considered essential activities, putting vulnerable communities at risk, as is the case with workers in the Antamina and Toromocho mines who are infected. Extractive industries continue to generate impacts. For example, there is a road that operates in the mines that causes the spillage of toxic waste. In the Amazon region of Loreto there are infections among indigenous Quechuas, Matsés, Shipibos, the latter with cases of death. On the border triplet between Peru, Colombia and Brazil, 7 indigenous Ticunas died. The emergency plan for indigenous people does not specify concrete measures and does not include indigenous organizations in the management of the crisis. At the same time, the Armed Forces exercise greater territorial control.

No Ecuador, the cases in the indigenous population are beginning to appear despite a null response from the government of Lenín Moreno, which does not perform tests to detect contagion. In Siekopai nation, which has only a population that has been reduced to 700 people, after the ethnocide generated by the oil extraction, it registers 2 elderly people who have died with symptoms associated with COVID19 because tests were not carried out to confirm, and 15 infected with the corona virus(4). Foram confirmed 2 deceased Chachi indigenous people and 18 infected with corona virus, detected by the indigenous organization itself, which obtains a doação of tests(5). Furthermore, the Amazonian soils were affected by a spill of nearly 15.000 barrels of oil that affected approximately 105 communities, mainly the Kichwa and Shuar nationalities, which depend on two rivers as a source of food and water. Such a spill has tied up the rivers on the Peruvian side, without the Ecuadorian State having anything to remedy it. Oil, mega-mining, and timber extraction activities are not active, and it is known that workers are infected with the corona virus that circulates throughout indigenous communities, thus exposing a serious risk of contagion. Madeireira activity also covers the territory of two isolated indigenous peoples Tagaeri and Taromenane(6).

Na Colombia, the government of Iván Duque took measures that benefit the local elites and the national and international financial powers, at the same time that they extremely negatively affect the peasant, indigenous and Afro-descendant communities. The tax-free entry of 2 million tons of cereals is the decree that approves the entry of transgenic milho into the country (decree 523 of April 7, 2020) affecting local production, the short circuits of exchange, and the support of two small producers. The absence of social protection measures during the quarantine resulted in the exacerbation of two food security problems that were already exposed to at least two Colombians. Particularly worrying is the situation in the Amazon (where, second El EspectadorIn one week there was an increase of 123%, two infections and not only in the intensive care unit of the only hospital in the area), in the Pacific, in the department of Chocó, three territories inhabited mainly by indigenous and black communities and where approximately 70% of the population lives in conditions of multidimensional poverty. During the quarantine period, the Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca, CRIC, repudiation or recrudescimento of violence, the assassination of social leaders and hostility to indigenous communities by armed groups(7). Thus, the Organização Nacional Indígena da Colombia, ONIC, denounced not only the government's negligence, but also the physical attack by special forces against its denounced food and humanitarian emergency situation and that at least 80% of the indigenous territories did not receive the announced aid. government hair (8).

Na VenezuelaOn May 10, the first cases of people infected with the new corona virus in the Amazon state were officially confirmed, where the goal of the indigenous population was confirmed. The crisis situation of the internal political conflict deixaram a serious humanitarian situation for the population, being the indigenous people or the most vulnerable sectors of the entire country, both due to the historical lack of reconfirmation of ownership of their lands and the push for re-colonization of the Venezuelan Amazon and of all Guayana region around gold, diamond and coltan mining expansion, concentrated in megaproject Orinoco Mining Arc. The last push of now when, in full quarantine, the national government determined as strategic zones for the exploration of minerals rivers such as the Caura, Cuchivero, Aro, Yuruari, Cuyuní and Caroní, basic vitalities for the Amazon (Resolution No. 0010 of April 8, 2020, official Gazette extraordinária No. 6.526), representing an enormous perigo for the indigenous people. The interventionist role of the United States government is going to aggravate this already delicate situation.

As a Working Group, we recognize that the COVID19 pandemic has its origin in a system of production and consumption that destroys the ecosystems of human life, and we denounce the genocidal effect of the death policies of the majority of two Latin American states. We also denounce that, since the global confinement was initiated, at least 10 social leaders and activists have been assassinated in Latin America, six of them only in Colombia(9). We appeal to people from all over Abya Yala to denounce this crime and unite for common survival. We ask the States to cease issuing new concessions for oil extraction, mega-mining and timber as long as the emergency lasts; that apply distancing and confinement protocols for workers in these industries, also respecting their workers' rights; that we activate prevention and care protocols for indigenous and black people in strict dialogue with the organization that we represent, and with criteria of interculturality; that measures be taken to guarantee the health of all without distinction of social class, race, ethnicity, or national origin, and that we cease attacks on indigenous and black leaders.

Work group
Political ecology(s) from Sul/Abya Yala
May 14th 2020

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