MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st May, 2020) Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has repeatedly exhibited racist sentiment towards the indigenous peoples living in the Amazon Basin and is trying to dismantle the community's traditional way of living in an effort to exploit their rich lands, the Brazilian branch of the international environmental group, Friends of the Earth, told Sputnik.
"When we look at the past, the positivist perspective used by the military with the Indigenous Protection Service (SPI) is the same hygienic and racist policy presented today by Bolsonaro when referring to native peoples as those who need to be integrated into a model of 'civility'. What is behind it is a debate about how the Amazon is seen: a source of incalculable socio-biodiversity versus a source of infinite profit. Moreover, the racism of the president, which is not behind it, is open and evident," Friends of the Earth Brazil said.
As the current Brazilian government aims to increase the exploration of the Amazon's forest and minerals, it is trying to "densify" the indigenous population and "insert" them into a consumer society, according to the organization.
"It is essential to defend the peoples responsible for keeping the forests standing, those who have always been in the territory taking care and defending, those who have historical interdependent relationships with nature and who contribute to moving towards the necessary system change for a just society. Of course, we must defend the peoples of the Amazon and the movements that articulate and organize resistance according to traditional ways of life, but how do we guarantee these ways of life in a context of declared genocide, be it by bullet or by virus?" Friends of the Earth underlined.
In April, Greenpeace International slammed the Brazilian president over failing to provide health care assistance to the indigenous peoples and leaving them "in a deadly situation" amid an outbreak of the coronavirus. The leading environmental organization also criticized Bolsonaro for his consistent attempts to deprive the indigenous community of their lands and human rights.
Gleisi Hoffmann, the head of Brazil's leading opposition force, the Workers' Party (PT), echoed this stance. She told Sputnik in April that the indigenous peoples living in the Amazon region were effectively deprived of medical assistance and access to health care amid the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
