Indigenous Peoples of Brazil

The Guarani: extreme poverty, life expectancy of just 40 years. The current Brazilian government of Jair Bolsonaro is aggravating these conditions.
It appears that the president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro,  does not care about native peoples. 
Among +100 indigenous nations in Brazil, the Guarani, closely related to the Tupi, represent one of the most important Brazilian First Nations both historically and demographically. 
Before the European colonization, the total population of Guaraní communities amounted to several million (perhaps of the order of 10 M), extending from the jungles of northern Mato Grosso to the Paraná River delta. 
Its existence was based on fishing and the application of agricultural logging and burning practices in the jungle environments where they lived. The main crops were corn, cassava, boñato, peanuts, beans and squash. They never constituted urban societies or centralized states. The communities generally maintained their autonomy, although alliances thet could be established or broken during  intercine wars.
The situation has changed considerably 500 years after the arrival of the Brazilian territory by Portuguese invaders. The demographic weight of the Guarani ethnic groups has decreased exponentially. Although it is still one of the most numerous native nations of the Brazilian subcontinent, their numbers and land control are at the most 1/100th of what they were in ancient times.
There are currently several Guarani sub-groups that inhabit the territory of Brazil, extending some of them into some neighboring countries. 
The main ones are the Kaiowá or Pai Tavytera with 30,000 members, the M’bya Guaraní with 20.000 and the Ava Chiripa with 10,000. +
The Kaiowá inhabit southern Mato Grosso and northeastern Paraguay, the M’bya Guaraní, who have adopted migratory behavior, extend through southern Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina and occasionally Uruguay. 
The Ava chiripá are found mostly in eastern Paraguay and much less in southwestern Brazilian territory.
In Brazil, both the Kaiowá and the M'bya have lost virtually all of their traditional lands, maintaining the Kaiowá some small reserves in Mato Grosso do Sur and largely inhabiting the slums of some cities in this state, such as Dourados or Campo Grande. 
Kaiowá living in cities are extremely poor and teenagers have one of the highest suicide rates in Brazil and America.
The M’bya on the other hand survive on the banks of water courses and on the side of the roads selling handicrafts living in great poverty with a life expectancy that barely exceeds 40 years.
With the anti-indigenous policies of Bolsonaro's government, the Guaraní peoples have seen their scarce margins of life and subsistence options decrease, the Kaiowá will not be able to recover the traditional lands they claim and may even lose some of their current reserves in the face of the advancement of large corporations and large landowners.
With an intolerant government, the M’bya guaraní will find more difficulties in their migrations or to settle on public or private lands.
These native peoples require the greatest solidarity, with their vulnerable  position in the new political environment of the country. .

An ethnocide that lasts 500 years 

Towards the definitive elimination of indigenous reserves in Brazil

New pattern of domination of indigenous peoples

On the second day of January 2019, the new President of the Brazilian Republic, Jair Bolsonaro, issued Provisional Measure 870 (MP / 870) where he restructured the governing bodies and their functions. Among the changes, the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI) moved from the Ministry of Justice to the Ministry of Women, Family and Human Rights, and deprived it of the demarcation and protection of indigenous lands, now transferred to the Ministry of Agriculture (MA). . Now the MA also accumulates the functions of the Institute of Agrarian Colonization and Reform. Therefore, it is the AMqwuien that takes care of the land policy as a whole, which, in addition to the indigenous lands, includes the lands of former quilombos (Afro-Brazilian nuclei or quilombola) and agrarian reform.

In Brazil, there are approximately one million native people, with 274 different languages.

There are currently 436 regularized indigenous lands, totaling almost 106 million hectares. There are also 130 pending demarcation processes, between delimited, declared and approved lands, which correspond to just over 12 million hectares. In addition, there are 115 areas under study. Six areas, totaling just over a million hectares, are prohibited for the protection of isolated indigenous peoples. 

The demarcation of their lands, provided for in articles 231 and 232 of the Federal Constitution, had its climax in the first half of the 1990s and was decreasing, more pronounced during the Dilma Rousseff government, until the paralysis during the Michel Temer government.
The demarcation process stopped and even completely reversed in recent months.

There are currently 436 regularized indigenous lands, totaling almost 106 million hectares. There are also 130 pending demarcation processes, between delimited, declared and approved lands, which correspond to just over 12 million hectares. In addition, there are 115 areas under study. Six areas, totaling just over a million hectares, are prohibited for the protection of isolated indigenous peoples. The regularized lands correspond to 12% of the national territory and the largest indigenous area is concentrated in the Legal Amazon.

A downward curve can be identified in the demarcation processes. But the decline has been more noticeable since the launch of the Growth Acceleration Program (PAC) in 2007. The PAC provided infrastructure works to integrate the territories with the accumulation chains. It involved the production and distribution of energy and logistics for the production and disposal of mineral and agricultural products. And also to fix labor in these areas.

Despite the legal framework of 1988, the Brazilian State's land policy has prioritized the export of agribusiness on a continuous basis. What has been conquered in the Charter of the Constitution, does not avenge in state policy. The land allocation curve for agrarian reform and quilombola land titling follows the same trend as the indigenous land demarcation curve. They have been treated more as social policies than as land policies.

The demarcation of the land was not exactly proportional to the indigenous population of each region. As mentioned earlier, most of the demarcated lands are in the Legal Amazon, which covers the North region and a part of the Midwest when it was not yet a border of export agribusinesses. The demarcation in these regions ended due to the valorization of the nearby lands.

The accumulation chains, however, now require the integration of all territories. Do not let "an inch out" is ordered. For this, it is necessary to change the legal regulatory framework for land use (water and air). Garimpos mining, cattle land, soybean plantations, cane, cocoa eucalyptus and pine, for example, today border the territories of traditional villages. And they find an insurmountable border in the path of life and indigenous spirituality. There is no way to integrate these areas into productive / extractive practices of capital. The changes in the policies for the indigenous peoples described in MP / 870 and formulated in the declarations of the new government are not only aimed at preventing the continuity of the demarcation processes. Its objective is ethnocide, "deindianization," as the integration of the indigenous population was called during the Old Republic. The intention is the abandonment of their way of life, which is antagonistic to the civilization of capital.

The Minister of Agriculture is Tereza Cristina Corrêa da Costa Dias. Representative of the ruralists, is from Mato Grosso do Sul (MS), where this sector advances over the territories of the Guarani and the Kaiowá. This State, which has already experienced the cycles of yerba mate produced on a large scale, cattle and soybeans, in recent years has been trying to take advantage of the commercial opportunities that derive from the high demand for cane for ethanol production . Farmers in the United States even started cattle auctions to sponsor anti-indigenous militias. This is the minister that will deal with the demarcations. The risk to the people is that, in addition to interrupting the demarcation processes, the criteria that threaten the lands already regularized will be applied, such as those already used in the "time frame".

At the same time, the Minister of Women, Family and Human Rights, Dalmares Alves, wants a white letter to evangelize the indigenous people. The new government officials use advertisements that are not sure of being applied: the extinction of IBAMA (Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources), the withdrawal of Brazil from climate agreements, the non-recognition of ILO Convention 169 , which requires consultation with peoples On the one hand, they tempt and, if necessary, withdraw. But in making these statements, they encourage peasants, miners and loggers to lay their hands on terror against the peoples of the land.

The attack on the natives, their territory and their way of life aims to leave the land, all this, as an unprotected continuum available for "rape", for exploitation by dispossession, for extractivism.

Brazil thus becomes a laboratory for the pattern of domination corresponding to the new capital accumulation model. The Brazilian working classes were disarmed during the last decades of any anti-capitalist project. The organizations that were able to build in the last cycle of struggles were co-opted for capital projects or reduced in their autonomous action. The peoples of the earth cannot be integrated into value chains without dying as a people. The death of their culture is the trump card of the destruction of territories (which includes human energy) to extract value.

What is at stake here is the future of all of us, indigenous and non-indigenous. Let's learn from the people of the earth. They know how to make the world a place to live.

By: Silvia Beatriz, published on 11/01/2019, adapted on 12/4/2019 

translated from:https://jornalggn.com.br/noticia/politicas-de-bolsonaro-visam-o-etnocidio-a-%E2%80%9Cdesindianizacao%E2%80%9D

2019 fires in tropical South America

During the winter season of 2019 in South America, particularly in Brazil, Bolivia, Perú and Paraguay, many fires were detected related to the improper exploitation of land resources in tropical rainforests.

A recent satellite image shows the number and intensity in many fire in those countries..

This enclosed satellite image shows that the main fires are occurring in Brazil, along the Purus and Madeiras rivers, in Bolivia (departments of Beni and Santa Cruz), in Peru and Paraguay. In these 4 countries the policies of occupation of tropical forests are depredatory.

In the case of Brazil, the process may have been intensified by some policy changes in relation to protected areas and demarcation of indigenous lands, aggravated by unhappy statements by President Bolsonaro.

In Bolivia, Evo Morales mistakenly authorized burning, while in Peru a similar process is seen. In Eastern Paraguay (where mostly forests have already been burned or felled) fires appear to be due to stubble burning preparing soils for planting soybeans or other crops.
It is also seen that there are few fires in the Amazon River area, due to the fact that it is a less intervened and very humid area with rains throughout.

Brazil, genocide and environmental degradation

Danilo Anton

Before the Portuguese invasion and conquest, the current territory of Brazil was populated by several hundred indigenous nations with an estimated total population of more than 20 million inhabitants.

Death, enslavement, forced labor, infectious diseases, displacement and land occupation led to a dramatic decrease in that number of people. During the following centuries the process of demographic elimination did not cease and even in the 21st century it continues to affect the physical and cultural existence of the surviving nations.

At present (2019) there are more than a hundred differentiated native ethnic groups, many of them in serious danger of extinction with an estimated population of just over 1 million inhabitants in their traditional territories and another 3 or 4 million living outside their Reservations.

Some ethnic groups are particularly resilient and have resisted the continuing onslaught of agricultural and mining business interests, as well as the complicity of federal and state political powers.

This situation has been aggravated by the seizure of power by the extreme right groups that seek to modify or prevent the demarcation of indigenous reserves and the environmental protection of many valuable territories from an ecological and environmental point of view. The anti-indigenous policies that have been accentuated with the Jair Bolsonaro government already existed before but now intensified strongly.

The occupation and exploitation of indigenous lands and other areas of high biodiversity is carried out through the destruction of tropical forests (through logging and especially burning) resulting in numerous fires that year after year produce a cumulative destruction of ecosystems and productivity of the soils. This situation hinders or prevents the regeneration of jungle vegetation cover by developing erosive and polluting processes in the basins.

Once the lands have been occupied by the agricultural and mining corporations, or simply individual settlers, it is possible to prevent the implantation of new tree shoots through successive burns, generally annual, that can reach several tens of thousands in detectable fires from of satellite images.

Fires continue to increase resulting in local and regional climatic changes with harmful effects on the health and quality of life of populations.

It should be noted that many national and international indigenous and indigenist organizations are fighting these genocidal policies of Brazil's political-economic system and, in a way, have delayed or prevented predatory actions in the territory.

The main native peoples that have managed to survive with a relatively large number of inhabitants are the following.

1) Guarani (all) 270,000

(including the Kaiwá or Pai Tavytera, the Ñandeva or Ava Chiripá, the M’byá, The Ava Guaraní or Chiriguanos, and the Izoceños or Guarayos and the Ava Guayakíes).

2) Ticuna 70,000

3) Yanomami 35,000

4) Pai Tavytera or Kaa'wa, 40,000

5) Ñandeva or Pai Tavyterá, 25,000

6) Kaingang 30,000

7) Mbya Guarani 28,000

8) Xavantes 16,000

9) Potiguara 12,000

10) Pataxó 11,800

11) Kayapo 10,000

12) Terena 20,000

13) Sateré-Mawé 14,000

14) Xakriabá 10,000

15) Xucurú-Kariri 8,500

16) Karajá 3,000

17) Tupinambá de Olivença 3,000,

18) Tupiniquim 2,630,

19) Parecis 2,200

20) Bororo 1,500

21) Kadiweu 1,500

And another 100 nations with populations of less than 1,500 inhabitants.

Indigenous peoples of the Upper Orinoco: the Yanomami

  

About 20 years ago I had the opportunity to tour the upper Orinoco and its affluent-connection with the Amazon basin: Caño Casiquiare. In that place inhabits one of the most numerous nations of the South American tropical jungles. the Yanomami, whose villages I had the opportunity to visit ..

At that time they were threatened by the "evangelization" of the "New Tribes" and other evangelical sects. In recent years, this religious colonization was considerably reduced both in Venezuela and in Brazil. We will see how they are affected by the political changes in those two countries.

  

The world of the Yanomami

  

For the Yanomami, "urihi", the jungle land, is not a mere inert space of economic exploitation (what we call "nature"). It is a living entity, inserted in a complex cosmological dynamic of exchanges between humans and non-humans. As such, it is currently in danger from the blind predation of "whites". In the vision of the leader Davi Kopenawa Yanomami: 

"The forest-land can only die if it is destroyed by the whites, then the streams will disappear, the earth will be burned, the trees will dry up and the stones of the mountains will be broken by the heat." The spirits xapiripë, who live in the sierras and they stay playing in the jungle will end up fleeing, their parents, the shamans, will not be able to call them to protect them anymore The earth-jungle will become dry and empty The shamans will not be able to stop the smoke-epidemics and the beings evils that make us sick, in this way, everyone will die. " 

                                    Yanomami village

The Yanomami form a society of fishermen, slash-cultivators and, in addition, gatherers and hunters of the rainforest of the north of the Amazon region whose contact with the national society is, in most of its territory, relatively recent.

Its territory covers, approximately, 192,000 Km2, located on both margins of the border of Brazil with Venezuela, in the Orinoco-Amazon interfluvial region (tributaries of the right bank of the Branco River and left of the Negro River). They constitute a cultural and linguistic group composed of, at least, four adjacent subgroups that speak languages ​​of the same family (Yanomae, Yanõmami, Sanima and Ninam). The total Yanomami population, in Brazil and Venezuela, was estimated at almost 26,000 people in 1999.

In Brazil, the Yanomami population was 12,795 people, spread over 228 communities (census of the Fundação Nacional de Saúde-Fundación Nacional de la Salud - 1999). The Yanomami Indigenous Land, which covers 9,664,975 ha (96,650 km²) of tropical forests, is recognized for its importance in terms of protection of Amazonian biodiversity and was approved by a presidential decree on May 25, 1992.

Geography
Aridity and poverty in the Brazilian Northeast

Danilo Antón

The Brazilian northeast is the poorest region in the Brazilian subcontinent. Insufficient rains and a rough  has produced a tough human environment. Poverty and emigration are common. From Piauí to the hinterland of the Bahia state, the Northeast has a shared history of exploitation, poor practices of farming, slavery and frustrated rebellions. However, the main limitations of the area relate to the climatic and ecological environment.

I Climateⁱ

The Northeastern region of Brazil, possesses a hot and humid climate with a short dry season along the coast, and a hot and semiarid climate in the interior. Much of the region is a transition from the dry hinterland to the more humid coastal plains.

In the proximity of the ocean (up to about 50 to 100 km from the shoreline) annual precipitations exceed 1000 mm (i.e. Alagoas, Pernambuco, Paraiba, Rio Grande do Norte) reaching more than 2000 mm in some ocean-facing slopes.

As described earlier, rainfall in semi-arid areas varies from 800 mm per year to slightly below 400 mm in the driest zones of the sertão, The dry season occurs from July through September. Rainfall takes place in the Southern Summer (January through March). However, actual precipitations during the rainy season may be very irregular.

Mean monthly temperatures have small variations throughout the region, and they are more influenced by altitude than sun exposure. Annual medium temperature in the plains varies between 24 C^o (coast) and 26 C^o (interior).

Clouds and fogs can form in the highest areas even during the dry season, reducing sun exposure to less than 5 hours per day in the planalto (i.e. plateau), while the plain areas are subject to higher sun exposure, up to seven hours daily or more.

II) Geology and geomorphology

Northeastern Brazil geomorphology has developed on a very ancient shield bedrock, with cratonic (stable) geological behavior. Sedimentary basins formed along the eastern and northeastern edges of the region (Sergipe- Alagoas and Potiguar-Recife sedimentary basins), and in the Northwest and West, the large Parnaiba- Maranhão sedimentary basin and the nearby São Luis and Barreirinhas sedimentary basins, and the São Francisco sedimentary basin in the Southwest.

There are also several smaller sedimentary basins inland, within the shield region, of which the largest is the Araripe basin (approximately 15,000 km², 200 km long and about 100 km wide) which is located in the boundary of the states of Pernambuco, Piauí and Ceará..

Old erosion surfaces are found next to the water divides of the main hydrographic basins (i.e. between the Tocantins and the São Francisco, between the São Francisco and the northeastern basins) forming “chapadas” (plateaus)ⁱⁱ. Chapada soils are normally shallow and, because they have suffered long geological lixiviation, their fertility levels are low. Vegetation in drier chapadas is caatinga (see section 3), while more humid chapadas next to the coastal plain may possess other types of ecosystems (agreste).

Old chapadas are separated by erosion river valleys, often filled with alluvial deposits containing local aquifers that are normally used for water supply and irrigation.

Downstream, alluvial plains become wider until they merge with the coastal Tertiary and Quaternary formations (dunes, beach, lower valley alluvial and estuarine deposits)

III) Soils

In the interior of the Northeast region soils are shallow, particularly in the erosion surfaces and slopes. In the upper chapada flat areas fertility is low due to lengthy lixiviation. In the lower areas (alluvial valleys) soils are deeper and more fertile (more productive), but they may have salinity problems (often induced by inadequate irrigation management). However, due to their medium to high fertility and the persistent warm temperatures, if water resources (i.e. irrigation) are available, farming productivity can be very important.

Brazilian Northest; Biological environment

I) Caatinga

Caatinga (“white bush” in tupi language) occupies about 730,000 km² (7% do Brazil) and can be found in all northeastern states: Maranhão, Piauí, Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Sergipe, Alagoas and Bahia (and North of Minas Gerais)

Caatinga is formed by cactus, bushes and small trees adapted to dry and hot conditions. The main adaptations of caatinga species are thorns, fleshy and/or small leaves, which also tend to fall during the dry season, and well developed root systems.

There are two types of caatinga the “Caatinga Hipoxerófila” typical of less extreme climate, as for instance the coastal “baixada” (slopes), and the hyper-xerophile caatinga, found in the driest regions, with thorny bushes and trees, and cactuses.

II) Agreste

Agreste is a transition zone between “caatinga” and tropical forest, including more and larger trees than in caatinga, but less than in the tropical forest. It is composed of trees, bushes and an undergrowth of herbaceous plants.

III) Cerrado

Cerrados (from the Spanish word “closed”) are a typical ecosystem of the Brazilian interior. In the Northeast they are found in the Western plateaus of the “sertão baiano”. They are composed of low canopy trees with a bushy and grassy undergrowth, producing a dense configuration difficult to penetrate.

IV) Tropical forest (mata umida)

The mata úmida or tropical forest, composed of trees with tall canopies, is found in coastal areas and in mountain valleys and lower slopes in the proximity of the sea.

In a large measure, these forests have been eliminated (logged, burned), often to make place for plantation activities. The present extension of “mata úmida” is today restricted to steep slopes and protected areas (which are not very extensive in Northeastern Brazil).
(to be continued)

i Source:Guia Internet Brasil, 1999

ii As defined by Aziz Nacif Absaber; Summit surfaces in Brazil, Revista Brasileira de Geociencias, 30 (3) 515-516; Sept. 2000.

The Gaza Strip of Brazil

"In Mato Grosso del Sul there is an ongoing ethnocide and genocide and the Brazilian State promotes a policy of" extinction of a culture and a people "expresses Bruno Martins, magister in anthropology from the University of São Paulo who spent three years studying the resistance of the Guaraní Kaiowá peoples in Mato Grosso do Sul.

The recurring episodes of violence made the site of Dourados known as the Brazilian Gaza Strip, in the definition of the anthropologist Eduardo Viveiros de Castro. 
As in the Middle East, land is at the base of disputes.
The Mato Grosso del Sul has the highest proportion of private lands in the country: 92% of its territory - and indigenous lands correspond to 2.2% of the total area of ​​the State.

Only in the Indigenous Reserve of Dourados, there are 20 thousand indigenous people confined in about 35 square kilometers.

The census of the inhabitants was done by the local indigenous community itself, reported Jaqueline Gonçalves Porto, Guaraní Kaiowá and advisor to UN Women.

Exploited by latifundia and monoculture,  indigenous people mobilized to occupy land and accelerate demarcation processes. While the Guarani Kaiowá use the term retaken, the `owners who hire thugs to expel the natives call them the "episodes of invasion ".

The anthropologist Bruno Martins says that "the resumed are the option of a people who do not want to renounce their cultural identity."

After the creation of indigenous reserves by the SPI and the arrival of soy production, many of the areas taken from indigenous people were sold to rural producers, creating the germ of the territorial dispute under way until today.

The teacher for the USP Bruno Martins points out that the colonization of Mato Grosso do Sul occurred through the "liberation of lands" artificially. "To the extent that the agrarian structure of Mato Grosso do Sul is being created, large estates and indigenous people are being removed to the reserves, generating a growing and epidemic explosion of violence," says Martins.

The resumption and death

Nestled among wide fields of corn, the occupied village of Guaiviry is like an unwanted mole for the owners of the region.

The Indians took the place in November 2011. First, they received an attempt at bribery, money to leave the land.

The second visit was the visit of the vans of the private security company Gaspen. Armed with 12-gauge rifles, ten men killed the cacique Nízio Gomes, dragged his body to the vehicles and fled. The body of the Indian was never recovered again.

Indigenous people living in the area told Sputnik Brazil that the gunmen were leaving the place when one of the men in the group ordered the body of the cacique to be taken away. The gunmen, then, returned to the place of murder, picked up Nísio and used rubber bullets to disperse the Kaiowá Guaraní.

After the cacique's death, indigenous people in the region report that the expert work was done negligently and that police forces and local farmers tried to argue that Nízio had been killed by a relative of his.

The peasants also paid another Indian, known as Dilo, to lie to the authorities about Níz's whereabouts. He received R $ 2.3 thousand to tell the Federal Police that Nízio was hiding in a village in Paraguay - and he also heard the promise of receiving financial aid to elect a councilor. The success occurred in the Rural Union of Aral Moreira, as confessed Dilo himself later. The agreement resulted in the subsequent preventive detention of Osvin Mittanck.

"Because we are human, we do not have anywhere to go, we do not come from outside of Brazil, we are from here, only the indigenous people are not being respected, the Mato Grosso do Sul is the worst State, it massacres indigenous peoples", said the Guaraní Kaiowá Eliseu Lopes to Sputnik Brazil.

Who watches the watchers?

Created in 1997, Gaspen is a company of retired military police officer Aurelino Arce. Although the company was formally registered in the name of his wife and daughter, the ex-PM himself confirmed in testimony to the Federal Public Ministry that the company had 13 jobs and 31 hired security guards.

Even after the homicide of Dorvalino and other episodes of violence, Funai hired Gaspen to do security on indigenous lands. In 2008, R $ 13.9 thousand was paid for the company to do the "protection and promotion of indigenous peoples"

Sputnik Brazil sent a request for clarification on the hiring of Gaspen for press advice from the Ministry of Justice, a body linked to Funai, but so far has not received a response on the reasons and criteria for hiring the security company. Delfino says that the Mato Grosso do Sul shows that the supposed Brazilian racial "éden" does not exist and that the "right to property conceals the possibility that you killed someone". It also highlights that the indigenous people contributed the most to the development of all State activities.

"These people who would be more acclimatized to the sertao are that they were used as labor, human tractors, were used as slaves in the Matte Laranjeira, for the extraction of yerba mate, as slaves for the felling of forests.

In the decision that confirmed the closure of Gaspen, federal judge Moisés Anderson Costa Rodrigues da Silva affirms that the company "is contumacious in the practice of illicit practices against indigenous communities, which shows indications of use as a private militia."

The law professor and director of the UN working group on militias, Gabor Rona, believes that there is a strong relationship between economic conditions, inequality and the creation of militias. And he points out that the creation of these armed groups does not guarantee security. "It is the existence of inequality, of racism, of animosity between different ethnic groups that is the most fundamental source of insecurity."

"The idea that you can protect yourself within walls, in your cocoon of privilege, is a short-term vision." History has shown us several times that there is a point at which the privileged few created walls so high for themselves that all who are outside that wall have no option but to tear down that wall, and the revolutions happened repeatedly, the governments collapsed repeatedly, many times because a lot of people, and usually are the minorities in terms of wealth and privilege, they feel that pressure is being applied, and the more walls, fences and private militias, and tax cuts that the privileged create for themselves, the more they press everything else against the wall, and that wall will fall apart, "says Rona to Sputnik Brazil.

Translated and adapted from sputniknews

https://br.sputniknews.com/brasil/2018060611403683-mato-grosso-sul-faixa-de-gaza-brasil-genocidio-indigena-guarani-kaiowa/

Brazil's Pataxo depended on a river that's now polluted with mud

The Pataxo indigenous tribe's main source of food a

nd water was destroyed after January's dam collapse in eastern Brazil

Brumadinho, Brazil - A flock of black birds circle above a little stretch of land next to the Paraopeba river in eastern Brazil's Brumadinho, a city in the state of a Minas Gerais. Its waters are dark orange and smell like putrid fish.

"They're vultures. It's unbelievable," says 20-year-old Josiane Rosa, looking at the birds against the blue sky. Rosa is part of the Pataxo indigenous tribe.

The 82 people who live here used the Paraopeba river as their main source of food and water. But when the upriver Corrego de Feijao dam burst on January 25, it spilled nearly 12 million metric cubes of mine waste into the river and surrounding area, killing more than 100 people and wreaking havoc on the environment and the community's livelihood.

A helmet, which likely belonged to a mine worker, floats by. Logs, plastic debris and dead fish swirl in a whirlpool of thick brown water

"The smell is unbearable. Likely there're body parts in there, what do we do if one washes up and our children find it? It's infuriating," Rosa says.

Angoho, the wife of the tribe's chief, says her community will "never be able to eat fish here again".

"Today when I got to the river and I saw some dead chickens floating by I wanted to jump in there myself, God forgive me," she tells Al Jazeera.

"It's completely contaminated, they killed the river. It's dead," she said. 

READ MORE

Brazil dam disaster: 'Dead or alive, we just want to know'

Daily reports by the National Agency for Water report high quantities of heavy metals in the waters of the Paraopeba. These include manganese, iron, aluminium, nickel, lead, mercury, zinc, cobalt and even arsenic, among others.

According to the agency's report from January 30, "the biggest violations were observed among the levels of lead and mercury ... Values of up to 21 times the value of the class limit were recorded."

The severity of the problem has pushed the UN's expert on disposal of hazardous substances, Baskut Tuncak, to call for an impartial investigation into the disaster and into the toxicity of the waste. According to Reuters news agency, federal and state prosecutors have said they are seeking to file criminal charges.

Health authorities from Minas Gerais state have advised people to stay at least 100 metres away from the river. Most Pataxo homes are just at the 100-metre mark, but downstream, many houses and villages are much closer to the contaminated mud.

More than 80 people live in this community [Mia Alberti/Al Jazeera]

The community at Parque das Cachoeiras is one of the most affected. Some houses are just 10 metres away from the mud and bodies were found nearby. The locals there have no water or electricity.

"The Paraopeba river was a great source of drinkable water," said Hideraldo Buch, coordinator of Brazil's National Committee for Hydrographic Basins. He told Al Jazeera the Brumadinho had used other resources so its water supply wasn't affected. "But the river supplied over 50 other countries with water, plus riverside villages and indigenous communities," he added.

A bigger disaster looms

More than 200km downstream of the dam collapse, the Paraopeba meets the Sao Francisco river. It flows through six Brazilian states, supplying water for millions of people, until it empties into the Atlantic Ocean. The flow of the sea of mud continues to spread several kilometres a day like a toxic train with no brakes towards the Sao Francisco and is expected to reach its mouth later this month. 

If contaminated by the polluted waters, "we'll see another and much bigger environmental disaster", Buch said.

Six days after the dam collapse, Vale, the company that owned the Corrego de Feijao mine, announced a contingency plan to stop the residues reaching the Sao Francisco river.

The company said it will monitor 210km of the Paraopeba river from the point where the toxic waste entered the stream up to the point where it reaches the Sao Francisco river. Vale said it has started cleaning and dredging heavy debris from the first 40 kilometres of the affected portions of the Paraopeba river. As of last week, the company had installed at least three "filter-like barriers" to prevent the clouded toxic waters from spreading.

"These barriers are installed from the surface of the water with the help of floats, all the way down to the river bed," said Vale's environmental licensing manager, Rodrigo Dutra de Amaral.

"It's like a filter where the water passes but the residues are stuck," Amaral told Al Jazeera in a statement sent by email.

But officials like Hideraldo Buch accuse Vale of acting too late and worry the mining giant will follow what has been a record of empty promises so far.

Vale has yet to pay a fine of $100m, which includes compensation for the families of those killed or missing after the Mariana dam collapse that killed 19 people in 2015. This was considered the biggest environmental disaster ever in Brazil The toxic muds from that accident irreversibly destroyed one of the most important rivers in Brazil and killed scores of coral reefs when they reached the Atlantic Ocean. The company also never reached a conclusion on what happened during the 2015 incident, and executives who worked in Mariana were still working in Brumadinho at the time of the new collapse.

Although Vale has repeatedly said the dam was monitored and approved by engineers just weeks before the disaster, a Reuters investigation found that the company knew the dam had a heightened risk of rupturing.Vale's president apologised to the victims on the day of this year's disaster. Speaking to reporters a few days later, CEO Fabio Schvartsman said "everything will be taken care of", referring to the company's responsibilities regarding the environmental damage. But, he added, "first we have to think about the victims and their families" to whom Vale has promised to pay $25,000 each.

Since the disaster, Vale has rushed to suspend dozens of dams and raised the risk level on many others.

Local residents and officials blame not only Vale but also the government. "We know the national policy on dam safety is loose, it gives the power to business owners to loosen licensing," Buch said.

Hideraldo said he's not against mining projects because they bring jobs and progress. Most of the mine workers in Brumadinho were local residents. 

"But we need stronger laws, more monitoring and planning," Hideraldo said. "Let's see what happens now, that more people died, maybe we can finally change the laws."

The Brazilian government has created a special ministry council to monitor the situation. The country's environmental agency fined Vale $66.5m for creating a "socio-environmental catastrophe".

The Ministry of Mines and Energy also recommended "new criteria to perfect the control and monitoring system of dam safety" which includes a single-registry system for independent auditing companies. The government has stopped short of placing criminal blame on Vale for the collapse, but several federal and governmental officials have said that pending the result of the investigations, the matter might be treated as a criminal one.

Too late to apologise

Back in Brumadinho, the small riverine beach used by the Pataxos has now become a cemetery for the dozens of dead animals that wash ashore along with all kinds of rubbish. Workers hired by Vale roam the beach collecting the cadavers and trying to rescue any still alive.

Ana Cacilda Reis from the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA) said she's already found "dead fishes, snakes, rodents, cows, chickens and even pets".

Cacilda Reis said IBAMA's main concern is to minimise the impacts of the disaster on biodiversity, not only in the river but also of the local flora.

The Brumadinho disaster is another blow to the survival of the rich forest, which is part of the Atlantic Forest, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The mud wiped out more than 290 hectares of land, including 147 hectares of green areas, according to the secretary of state for the environment and sustainable development.

The massive and sudden deforestation along with the constant presence of the contaminated mud will bring serious health problems to the local populations.

"This mud will turn into dust that will cause breathing problems for the most affected communities", said Marcus Vinicius Polignano, professor of medicine at Minas Gerais University, FMG.

The river is part of our family, a living being. So when people say no one died here, the river died. And we consider one of our own died.

Polignano told Al Jazeera some infectious diseases, normally contained inside the forested areas, can also threaten locals. "The most common is yellow fever." he said, adding that "we are advising everyone to get vaccinated because there is a high risk of infection".

However, what frightens Polignano the most are the challenges the massive trauma will pose to the mental health of those affected. In a town where "everyone knows everyone", he expects cases of depression and even suicide.

"The town's gravedigger told me he never expected to bury so many of his friends. Can you imagine the impact of something like that?" he added.

Those affected by the tragedy can seek psychological help in one of the support centres set up by Vale in the centre of Brumadinho. The company is also providing medical assistance, 1,600 litres of water, accommodations, phone services and food to those affected.

The Pataxos worry about how they will survive from now on, as they've become dependent on donations and foreign help for their basic necessities [Mia Alberti/Al Jazeera]

Pataxo tribe members lamented that it took Vale nearly a week to send any kind of food and water. And most say that the company must do more.

"Vale is very delusional if it thinks it can buy us with food or water. We are not pets," said Rosa's friend, Avelin.

"The river is part of our family, a living being. So when people say no one died here, the river died. And we consider one of our own died," Avelin told Al Jazeera. 

By Mia Alberti

Reference:

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/02/brazil-pataxo-depended-river-turned-mud-190212165216265.html

Extreme poverty in Brazil

Sao Paulo, Brazil - Marcos Alves da Silva stands in the kitchen of his home where he lives with his wife Maria de Lourdes, their seven children and four grandchildren.

They live on Morro da Mutuca, a hillside community of red brick homes, flanked by Atlantic Forest, with unpaved streets that turn to thick mud when it rains, in Parelheiros, a poor semi-rural district on the far-flung outskirts of Sao Paulo.

Since Brazil plunged into a deep recession three years ago, 40-year-old Marcos finds work increasingly scarce. The informal day jobs he does as a bricklayer or handyman pay less than they used to and he often ends up going to the streets to collect scrap and recyclables to sell.

"In the past if I earned 100 Brazilian real [about $24], it would be enough to buy lots of things at the supermarket," he says. But these days he'll work for just 30 real (less than $7.50).

The family's kitchen cupboard contains just half a bag of rice, some flour and salt. The fridge is broken. Inside are some bottles of water and a plastic bag filled with small chunks of pink meat.

"These are the leftover fatty bits, we ask the butcher shop to give them to us," he tells Al Jazeera.

In less than two weeks, Brazilians will head to the polls to elect new president and representatives, but voters here in Parelheiros have little faith in politicians, with extreme poverty and hunger on the rise. Experts blame high unemploymen from the recession and falling incomes, coupled with deep austerity measures. 

High unemployment, extreme poverty

In the run-up to Brazil's last elections in 2014 unemployment was at a record low and the country was removed from the UN Hunger Map.

Exact figures on how much extreme poverty has risen since then are hard to come by. 

According to one study undertaken by Action Aid Brazil and Brazilian Institute of Social and Economic Analysis (Ibase), extreme poverty rose from 5.2 million people in 2014 to 11.9 million in 2017, based on the July 2017 definition of extreme poverty, which includes those living on less than 102.44 real (about $25) a month. 

For Sao Paulo's LCA Consultancy, using data from Brazil's Continuous National Household Sample Survey (PNAD), extreme poverty rose from 13.3 million in 2016 to 14.8 million in 2017, using the World Bank's definition of living on $1.90 or less a day.

Unemployment remains stubbornly high at 12.3 percent or 12.8 million people, according to Brazil's Institute of Geography and Statistics, a scant recovery since its 13.7 percent peak in early 2017.

Experts say unemployment rates will continue to recover slowly, with most the qualified the first to benefit and the poorest last.

"Any initial economic recovery will not reach people in extreme poverty," says Cosmo Donato, an economist at LCA. "They are historically disadvantaged."Marcos's wife Maria has been unemployed for two years and does odd cleaning jobs when she can.

"Thank god, something small appears for me every now and again but it's really difficult," 43-year-old Maria says.

Brasil new President after one month in office  

Brazil, new President, Jair Bolsonaro, is yet to complete his first month in office and cracks have started appearing in his eclectic electoral base.

Bolsonaro, a former military officer who was a member of the Brazilian Congress for nearly three decades without leaving a legislative trace, rose to prominence last year after securing significant support from discordant right-wing groups.

From the free market-loving members of the Free Brazil Movement (MBL) to religious fundamentalists, from the followers of the far-right "philosopher" and astrologer Olavo de Carvalho to the traditionally conservative, promilitary interventionists, almost all of Brazil's prominent right-wing activists united behind the populist politician. Even Integralistas, a fascist movement founded in Brazil in the 1930s, and the monarchists declared their support for "Bolsonarism".

Bolsonaro managed to unite groups with such diverse political, economic and social objectives by promising to fight corruption, "gender ideology" and "cultural Marxism". He pledged to deliver a right-wing utopia - defined by machismo, nationalism, Christian fundamentalism and aggressive capitalism - but refrained from disclosing exactly how he was going to bring about this transformation.

Throughout his election campaign, the populist politician never put forward a detailed economic or foreign policy agenda or explained how he would fulfil the largely contradictory expectations of the groups that made his presidency possible.

Now, 30 days into his first term, Bolsonaro still doesn't seem to have a clear plan of action that would allow him to maintain his popularity, keep all his supporters happy and change the fortunes of Latin America's largest economy. As a result, despite favourable opinion polls and a stock index reaching record highs, the united right-wing base that gave Bolsonaro the presidency appears to be slowly disintegrating.

Disparate cabinet

After taking office, Bolsonaro immediately made a series of cabinet appointments to please all the groups that supported his candidacy.

The president made anti-corruption judge Sergio Moro his justice minister to satisfy those who voted for him with the hope he would end corruption. He appointed liberal banker Paulo Guedes the economy minister in line with the demands of the big business lobby.

Bolsonaro gave evangelical pastor Damares Alves the Ministry of Women, Family and Human Rights to please his most conservative supporters. He also had right-wing scholar Ricardo Velez Rodriguez take up the position of minister of education and Ernesto Araujo, a diplomat who believes he is fighting a crusade in defence of Christianity, become foreign minister to please various other conservative groups, including de Carvalho's followers.

However, even these strategic appointments could not stop his electoral base from fracturing and some of his allies from questioning the president's ability to deliver on his promises.

Contradictory economics

The business circles in Brazil put their support behind the far-right politician mainly because he promised to revive the country's "sluggish" economy, pass business-friendly reforms, downsize the public sector, reduce the fiscal deficit and tackle its unsustainably expensive pension system.

However, a month into his term, Bolsonaro still has not presented any details of his proposed economic reforms and policies, which has causedjitters in the market and a sense of alarm within the president's inner circle. Moreover, he continues to make controversial and contradictory statements, leading many to question his commitment to making Brazil "business friendly".

Only three days after taking office, for example, Bolsonaro said that he would increase the minimum retirement age to 62 for men and 57 for women - numbers significantly lower than the ones promised by his predecessor - signalling that he is planning to water down his campaign promises on radical pension reform.

On the same day, the president also announced that he has reservations about the planned sale of a stake in local jet-maker Embraer to US aircraft maker Boeing, causing the value of its stock to plunge by five percent. Days later, however, his government approved the sale.

In mid-January, Bolsonaro faced a mini ideological crisis. An official visit of MPs from Bolsonaro's Social Liberal Party to China angered some of his supporters. While doing business with China is good for the big capitalists backing the government, de Carvalho, his supporters and many others saw that business trip to a communist country as a "betrayal".

They emphasised the fact that many right-wing Brazilians voted for Bolsonaro because they believed he would pursue an anti-communist, right-wing agenda. The president had indeed made his anti-communist stance a major speaking point during his election campaign, even declaring that he is supporting US President Donald Trump's trade war against China.

Yet, as much as Bolsonaro admires Trumpism and hates communism, he can't do away with the fact that China is Brazil's top trading partner, importing more than twice as much Brazilian goods as the US does. How the Brazilian president is going to keep his anti-commie and pro-business supporters happy at the same time is anyone's guess.

Losing the war on corruption before waging it

The widespread public disenchantment over a series of mega corruption scandals that tarnished two Workers' Party governments was a major factor that contributed to Bolsonaro's election victory in October.

However, in his first month in office, the new president has failed to make much progress in the fight against corruption. On the contrary, Bolsonaro and his family have faced a series of corruption scandals, leaving many of his supporters disturbed and disillusioned.

An investigation by the Financial Activities Control Council (COAF) recently unearthed suspicious financial transactions worth hundreds of thousands of dollars made to the bank accounts of the president's oldest son and elected Senator, Flavio Bolsonaro, and the first lady, Michelle. The payments were made by Flavio's former driver Fabricio Queiroz, who claimed that he obtained the money he transferred to the president's family legally, by selling used cars.

Another series of suspicious cash transfers worth nearly $30,000 were also made to Flavio's bank account. The COAF report on these payments showed that 48 payments of 2,000 reais ($531) each were deposited into his bank account between June and July 2017, when he was a Rio de Janeiro state legislator.

The report said the origin of the money was unclear, but the fact that all transfers were made at a bank at Rio's state legislative assembly, where Flavio worked, made them suspicious. The senator defended himself by saying the money he deposited was from "the sale of an apartment".

A 'lower clergy' politician 

In light of the corruption scandals surrounding the Bolsonaro family, the MPs' "ill-advised" trip to China and the president's apparent lack of vision regarding the future of Brazil's economy, some of his supporters appear a bit less enthusiastic about his presidency now.

Many of those who had been vocal on social media previously are staying silent about these mishaps. Some are even saying that they are ashamed of their vote.

For those of us who saw through Bolsonaro's act last year, neither the corruption scandals, nor his lack of vision and consistency seems surprising. After all, he has long been a textbook case of what is known in Brazil as "lower clergy" (baixo clero): politicians with little power, vision or clout, motivated not by a desire to influence the future of the country, but by a determination to stay in office at any cost so as to line their pockets. 

Last year, Bolsonaro took advantage of the people's search for an alternative to mainstream politicians and the rise of far-right populism across the globe and managed to catapult himself to the front line of Brazilian politics. However, now that he is president, he has nothing to offer to the nation other than corruption, hate speech and empty rhetoric. 

Perhaps the fact that he has already started shedding supporters might spring him into action and get him to finally come up with an actual plan of how to govern the country and restart the economy. Or perhaps he'll keep going with his "lower clergy" ways until 2022 or until the country collapses.

By Raphael Tsavkko Garcìa
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/bolsonaro-30-days-office-190128184016650.html