The National Committee for the Life and Memory of Indigenous Peoples is the result of the National Assembly of Indigenous Resistance, held on May 8 and 9, 2020, and is organized by the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB) together with all its organizations base.

The number of people impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic is increasing every day in Brazil. Indigenous peoples are in a situation of great vulnerability with a real risk of this new virus causing another genocide in indigenous communities within traditional territories. In our history, millions of indigenous people were decimated by the free circulation of diseases, such as at the time of the Portuguese invasion or during the military dictatorship, in which viruses were used as biological weapons to exterminate more than 8 thousand indigenous people in that period, according to report of the Truth Commission. Now in the midst of a global pandemic, the social isolation recommended by the World Health Organization as the main remedy for Covid-19, has become an incentive for the Bolsonaro government to aggravate the situation of violence experienced by indigenous peoples. Invasions into territories are more intense, deforestation has increased, fundamentalist missionaries continue to be encouraged to commit crimes and illegal mining is advancing within indigenous lands. In the face of a government that is silent on the protection of peoples, we will not remain silent in the face of the threats that Covid-19 represents for our survival.

In order to denounce the ethnocidal action of the Brazilian State in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic and to value the life and memory of the indigenous peoples of Brazil affected by the new coronavirus.

National Committee for the Life and Memory of Indigenous Peoples

– APIB | Associação dos Povos Indígenas do Brasil (Association of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil)
– APOINME | Articulação dos Povos e Organizações Indígenas do Nordeste, Minas Gerais e Espírito Santo (Articulation of Indigenous Peoples and Organizations in the Northeast, Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo)
– ARPINSUDESTE | Articulação dos Povos Indígenas do Sudeste (Articulation of Indigenous Peoples in the Southeast)
– ARPINSUL | Articulação dos Povos Indígenas do Sul (Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of the South)
– ATY GUASSU | Grande Assembleia do Povo Guarani (Great Assembly of the Guarani People)
– COIAB | Coordenação das Organizações Indígenas da Amazônia Brasileira
(Coordination of Indigenous Organizations in the Brazilian Amazon)
– Conselho Terena (Terena Council)
– Comissão Guarani Yvyrupá (Guarani Yvyrupá Commission)
– Organizations, collectives and activists who build the APIB Indigenous Quarantine observatory

Notes on Committee data

– The data from the National Committee for Indigenous Life and Memory, from APIB, includes both indigenous people who live in traditional territories and those who live in an urban context, who declare themselves and have ties with their people, as provided by Convention no. 169 of the ILO (ratified by Brazil);

– The Special Secretariat for Indigenous Health (Sesai), of the Ministry of Health, does not provide care and registration for indigenous people living in an urban context. APIB repudiates this measure and demands the urgent revocation of ordinance 070/2004 to ensure that SESAI serves all indigenous people;

– Data collection is decentralized through the articulation of several indigenous base organizations that make up the APIB;

– Data update is daily;

– Data disclosure takes place with the consolidation of the previous day’s data.

– The sources of the data are: APIB-based indigenous organizations, Fronts to confront Covid-19 organized in Brazil that collaborate with APIB, SESAI, Municipal and State Health Secretariats and the Federal Public Ministry.

– The graphics were produced in partnership with Instituto Socioambiental.

Confirmed cases:

– Due to the lack of mass testing across the country in the indigenous context, we estimate that there is a significant disparity between the number of confirmed cases and the actual number of people infected.

– The data collected by the Committee are from tests confirmed among indigenous people by municipal and state health departments and, eventually, by institutions such as the Federal Public Ministry (MPF), for example, which has collaborated in testing in some states for indigenous refugees from Venezuela, the Warao;

– Due to the lack of transparency and the lack of detail in Sesai’s information, it is not possible to check duplicate cases between the two databases. The number presented represents the sum of data reported by SESAI and verified by the Committee;

– We emphasize that APIB and its grassroots organizations have neither political intentions nor the conditions for human and financial resources to carry out Covid-19 tests among indigenous peoples. Our role is to ask the Federal Government to take urgent action on the alarming situation of indigenous peoples during the pandemic.

Death cases:

– Due to the divergence in the Sesai data collection procedure and the lack of transparency in the details of the information, it is not possible to check deaths that may be duplicated between the two databases (of the APIB and Sesai Committee). The number presented represents the sum of data reported by SESAI and verified by the Committee.