Do you know what an ethnocide is? The term is used to define the extermination of traditional peoples in a territory, such as the Amazon Indians. The fear that something like this might happen is not an exaggeration. The Federal Government’s actions in the largest tropical forest in the world can lead to the death of thousands of Indians.
The justification for such aggressive public policies is the same used for several others: economic development. Meanwhile, the tribes are abandoned and are vulnerable to the actions of land grabbers, ruralists, and loggers.
Illegal exploitation of forest resources occurs with increasing frequency, away from the eyes of inspectors and in the face of the Federal Government’s omission. When natural resources are under threat, the population that depends on them is also exposed.
The promise
The grileiros (illegal exploiters) audacity is motivated by promises from a president who, still in the electoral campaign, promised to open the Amazon for commercial exploration. This involved mining, agriculture, hydroelectric plants, and oil, and gas exploration.
President Jair Bolsonaro’s constant statements were the missing incentive to accelerate invasions of indigenous lands and unleash a new ethnocide in Brazil. With the dismantling of the forest protection system, the tribes were left unprotected.
Since taking office, Bolsonaro and his environment minister, Ricardo Salles, have made budget cuts in strategic bodies such as the Fundação Nacional do Índio (Funai). The federal agency is responsible for defending indigenous rights.
In one of his public appearances, Bolsonaro assured that he would not demarcate another lands for the Indians. The argument is that the demarcations are obstacles to economic growth
It did not take long for the President of the Republic to present to the National Congress a bill to legalize illegal mining companies in the Amazon. These companies that the Federal Government intends to benefit are accused of committing environmental crimes, such as deforestation and pollution of rivers.
Illegal Exploteition Bill x Covid-19
Even in a time of the pandemic, President Bolsonaro does not settle when it comes to ensuring the ‘legal’ exploitation of the Amazon by groups from various economic sectors. To that end, it pressures parliamentarians to vote for the MP that legalizes invaded public lands.
The provisional measure went into effect in December 2019, but to become law it needed to be approved by May 19 by the Chamber of Deputies and Senate.
The project mainly benefits ruralists. According to the text, instead of a government team inspecting and measuring the area, it will be up to the land occupant himself to inform the extent and limits of the property.
Since the MP was implemented by the Government, until the beginning of May, 566 land titles were handed over to ruralists from eight states, informed the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (Incra), an autonomous agency under the Ministry of Agriculture.
If the MP is approved in Congress, experts fear that a loophole will be opened for squatters to invade indigenous territories. They’ve questioned two points of the measure:
The government now accepts the invader’s self-declaration of possession. This means that supervisory bodies will no longer go to the site to check the size of the property. According to the text, monitoring
Another proposal contained in the MP is the extension of the term to regularize occupations of public land, especially in the Legal Amazon. This would allow the legalization of land grabbing.
Despite the rush to approve the measure, the government needs to await Congressional decisions. The opposition and the parties favorable to the measure do not agree to put the text to a vote. With the pandemic, the uncertainties are even greater.
While Congress is undecided, the Indians suffer from the increase in invasions and the violence committed by the land grabbers who try to take the lands in a brutal way.
Increase in deforestation
According to the Deter-B system, developed by the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe), deforestation alerts grew 63.75% in April 2020, compared to the same month last year.
What is striking is that the increase occurs precisely in the midst of social isolation due to the Covid-19 pandemic. With a favorable government to expansionist actions, the Indians rely only on NGOs, activists, and environmental institutions, which are increasingly discredited by supporters of the executive.
Federal Constitution and loss of rights
Brazil’s 1988 Constitution guarantees indigenous peoples the right to land as a form of reparation for centuries of brutal treatment. These rights have never been respected. Meanwhile, the Indians are faced with bureaucracy to have their
The smaller tribes are the most threatened by loggers and land grabbers who are willing to do anything to exploit the resources of protected areas. No wonder there has been an alarming growth in deforestation and fires since Bolsonaro took over the Federal Government.
Clashes between invaders and Indians have become increasingly common. Defenders of the forest are killed in ambushes or tortured. Threats are part of the routine and the lack of support is less and less
Coronavirus and ethnocide
In addition to not having their land secured, tribes see other rights being curtailed, including access to health. With the departure of Cuban doctors from Brazil, Indians from isolated and remote areas have been missing visits by doctors and nurses.
In times of pandemic, the lack of health care exposes the Indians to a dangerous and deadly virus. There are records of deaths of Indians by Covid-19 and this may increase.
The pandemic can become one of the reasons for indigenous ethnocide since in contact with land grabbers, the Indians become victims of the disease. The extermination of the peoples of the Amazon has been going on for many years. However, with Bolsonaro in power, the act becomes legalized.
Most deaths are not through violent acts but through illegal exploitation of forest resources. When the forest dies, everything that survives from it is killed: fauna, flora, rivers, and Indians.
