Not even the pandemic stops extractivism and deforestation in the Amazon
Last Sunday, August 23, the international action campaign “Stop Bolsonaro” began, through sit-ins in front of the embassies of the Amazonian countries
The Amazon, the so-called “lung of the world”, suffers the onslaught of extractivism, deforestation, indiscriminate burning and mining. These activities, in addition to destroying the flora and fauna of the ecosystem, also attack those who inhabit and care for that territory: indigenous communities, a population that in the current context of the pandemic generated by COVID-19 is more vulnerable.
According to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the pandemic crisis has magnified social and ethnic inequalities, something that means that indigenous communities are three times more likely to die from COVID-19.
In this regard, journalist Karen Pinto Duitama wrote an article published for Radio Nacional de Colombia, in which she mentions that Gregorio Mirabal, general coordinator of the ‘Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin’ (COICA), affirms that they have 800 thousand infections in the Amazon basin, of which 38,719 are indigenous and 1,362 have died, and around 200 are ‘wise grandmothers and grandfathers’.
Given these figures, there is a need to stop this ethnocide, since according to the United Nations there are 826 indigenous peoples in Latin America that represent 20% of the population of the region, with more than 500 peoples in the Amazon basin, of which which 190 are affected by the pandemic, according to the coordinator of COICA.
Given this situation, Myrna Cunningham, president of the Board of Directors of the Fund for the Development of Indigenous Peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean (FILAC); and Amadeo Martínez, general coordinator of the Abya Yala Indigenous Forum (FIAY); formed the “Regional Platform against the impact of COVID-19”. Its objective is to coordinate with indigenous organizations and have a common voice before governments, regional and international organizations, to promote and follow up on actions to contain and mitigate the problems caused by the new coronavirus in indigenous peoples.
Cunningham, who is also a doctor and founder of the University of the Autonomous Regions of the Caribbean Coast Nicaragua (URACCAN), one of the first experiences of intercultural higher education in Latin America and the Caribbean; On several occasions, she has highlighted the measures that indigenous peoples have taken to face the pandemic, with the use of traditional medicine.
“We say that the future is what we do now, it is not what is to come, it is what we can build for what is to come and definitely the Covid-19 challenges us and challenges us to comply with the SDGs”; Cunningham said, referring to ECLAC’s warning regarding the impossibility of achieving the objectives of the Sustainable Development Goals, if drastic changes are not made in the model of development and progress is not made in democratic aspects in the region.
For his part, Martínez said that many communities face the situation with their knowledge and wisdom, but that it is not enough: “We must complement with other actions, such as assistance from the government in the short and medium term and develop culturally appropriate policies to face emergency situations”, he explained.
Similarly, on August 9, International Day of Indigenous Peoples, Martínez spoke about other problems faced by this population: “Despite what is thought, the pandemic has not stopped the criminalization of indigenous fighters. The murder rate has been maintained or even increased. Several communities are aware of it when buying food, closing markets and hoarding products in rural areas”.
The preservation of the Amazon
Faced with this situation, in a process of self-convocation by the associations, mainly indigenous, of the nine countries of the Amazon — Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Guyana, Venezuela, Brazil and Suriname — held on July 18 and 19, the first “International Assembly for the Amazon”, a great joint mobilization in defense of the territory and its own existence.
This assembly, which was also called “The Cry of the Jungle”, seeks to focus its efforts on three axes: Mobilization, COVID-19 and Boycott. The global mobilization days are an essential part to face climate change and aim to stop ethnocide, ecocide and extractivism in the Amazon; the mobilization and action campaign through social networks began on August 14 and will end on August 28.
These mobilizations will be articulated in joint actions that defend the lives of indigenous people, Afro-descendants and other populations of the Amazon, threatened by the coronavirus. The global boycott campaign will target products, companies, investments, government policies, trade agreements and extractivisms that cause the destruction of the Amazon.
A specific action will be to protest against the position of Jair Bolsonaro, president of Brazil, regarding the deforestation of the Amazon, which is classified as “denialist”.
Bolsonaro, in conversation with Brazilian state leaders, said: “A tropical forest does not catch fire. So the story that the Amazon is burning is a lie and we have to fight against it with numbers”, said the president despite the fact that the Brazilian government’s satellite imagery system on deforestation recorded 6,803 fires in July and shows a 28% increase of forest fires in the region.
For this reason, last Sunday, August 23, the international action campaign “Stop Bolsonaro” began, through sit-ins in front of the embassies of the Amazonian countries, to defend the biodiversity that inhabits 7 million square kilometers.
Other dates that served to denounce what is happening in the Amazon took place between August 17 and 20, when the Hearing of the International Tribunal for the Rights of Nature was held on the subject “The ecocide of the Bolivian Amazon”; and on Saturday 22, when a virtual concert of artists from Amazonian countries was held.
However, these are just the first days of protests, which promise to intensify next September, when “a process of global mobilization for the climate” begins.
The forgetfulness of the Amazonian governments
The Assembly for the Amazon also stated that the construction of territorial public policies stopped at the beginning of the coronavirus crisis, and one of the great factors is that decisions on the Amazon remain in the hands of the president of each country, which generates a lack of dialogue with the communities.
According to COICA, the largest indigenous association on the planet, “the indigenous organizations lasted 130 days without a response from the nine countries with sovereignty of the Amazon rainforest”, until on August 11 they finally managed to meet with the heads of the regimes in Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Guyana and Suriname, through a virtual meeting.
At this summit, Bolivian dictator Jeanine Áñez confirmed that her government was going to maintain the plan of action that President Evo Morales had left before suffering the coup that removed him from power.
For his part, the Ecuadorian president, Lenín Moreno, did not make any contribution, since he only agreed with COICA that no matter how much efforts each country makes for the Amazon, they will fall short if there are no “regional mechanisms” to improve the quality of life of the peoples, a quite superb statement, since it was precisely he who was in charge of destroying the South American Union of Nations (Unasur), a multilateral organization that would have served as the best platform to face the current situation.
Accordingly, the President of Colombia, Iván Duque, did not clarify what his government intends to do to help indigenous communities that in his country are besieged by paramilitary groups, drug trafficking and the Army itself, executors of bloody massacres in which, at least, 200 men and women of indigenous peoples have been assassinated during his administration.
He also did not speak of the actions to safeguard the Amazon and limited himself to saying that now, according to him, “we are more united than ever in that the results that we have incorporated into the action plan have financing, viability and the desired impact”, a statement that leaves a lot to be desired in the face of the urgent needs of intervention in defense of the Amazon.
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