The scenario of a deep crisis is taking on a daily basis in the indigenous communities of the Amazon. Spread over 7 million square kilometers, twelve times the size of France, straddling nine countries, the Indians of the Amazon basin have been recording, for a little over a week, the first contaminations with the coronavirus. From one region to another, cases are increasing and could take on alarming proportions if local authorities' guidelines to help indigenous peoples cope with the Covid-19 epidemic remain almost non-existent.
In Brazil, at least three Indians in the Amazon have already died from the disease, according to the Socio-environmental Institute (ISA) – an NGO specializing in the rights of peoples -, which disputes the figures released by the Ministry of health (this one recognized, Friday April 10, only 6 confirmed cases, 24 suspects and only one death). In Ecuador, the Indians are all the more worried that, in this small country of 15 million inhabitants, the number of patients has risen in recent days to 7,161, that of the dead to 297. The city of Guayaquil, overwhelmed by the pandemic is only a seven hour drive from the jungle, just over 200 km as the crow flies. In Peru, only one case has so far been identified, that of an indigenous leader, Aurelio Chino, infected during a stay in Europe where he was on a tour to denounce the ravages of the oil industry. He was in contact with several people before being confined.
Fear spreads everywhere aldeias Indian ("villages") where confinement within communities is inherently difficult. Collective life in the maloca, the “common house”, makes individual quarantine almost impossible. This situation is all the more dangerous since the indigenous populations already suffer from multiple comorbidities, that they are more exposed to viruses and have less access to care.
" We know it, says Sydney Possuelo, a famous sertanist (specialist in sertao, in the northeast region of the country) from Brazil and former president of the National Indian Foundation (Funai), this new highly contagious and virulent disease represents a particular danger for these immunologically vulnerable populations. Historically, viruses transmitted by white people to indigenous peoples have had a much more dangerous effect due to the weakness of their antibodies. " 90 to 95% of the 10 to 12 million Indians present at the time of the European invasion were exterminated by diseases imported by the colonizers.
