The coronavirus has now reached one of its most vulnerable victims: indigenous tribes in the Amazon forest. But rather than sweep in to help populations the Brazilian state is constitutionally sworn to protect, the government is floundering. Here's how.
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Stunningly, the first indigenous person to be infected in Alto Solimões -- where the worst indigenous outbreak is exploding -- came via a government doctor who’d carried the disease back with him from vacation.
The government has allocated $120 per month for the poor. But officials ignored indigenous requests that it be delivered to the villages. It left people no alternative than to leave the isolation of the forest to travel to cities and wait in lines to collect their $120 stipend.
Dozens returned to their villages coughing and feverish. The coronavirus soon ripped through the population. “The $120 of death,” people now call the aid.
But the government didn’t flood the villages with medical equipment, meal rations, coronavirus tests and health professionals. It has all but abandoned them, according to indigenous leaders, records and government officials.
“Help from the government? We’ve received nothing, nothing, nothing,” said Sinésio Tikuna Trovão, leader of the Tikuna people. “We need oxygen. We need equipment. Our medicinal plants cure only some of the symptoms. . . . We need more doctors to teach us. It isn’t easy."
