from Rio de Janeiro
Brazil is experiencing the shock of the continuous avalanches of allegations of corruption in the government of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro (photo)of the growing demoralization of the Armed Forces, in addition to the deep economic and social crisis, of the dismantling of everything that was built over decades, of the avalanche against the environment.
In other words, there is not, or should not be, room for other concerns. The deterioration of the image of the Armed Forces, harshly rebuilt after redemocratization, greatly accelerated under the current government. And that wear is now accentuated even more.
After all, how to explain the purchase of 35,000 Viagra pills, as well as intimate gel and male prostheses for the military?
Well, apart from all this, a new concern is consolidating: violence against indigenous people, the original peoples, which is only expanding.
More than allowed, directly incentivized by the right-wing extremist government, illegal miners invade territories demarcated as indigenous reserves at amazing speed.
And not satisfied with just mining and contaminating with mercury waters that bring fish to the inhabitants not only of the indigenous reserves but along kilometers of the riverbanks, they are now advancing on women and, especially, adolescents.
This is something unusual in my country. Never, not even in the much praised (by Bolsonaro and the military that surrounds him) dictatorship that lasted 21 years, from 1964 to 1985, was there so much destruction of everything, everything, from scientific research to the economy, from the arts and culture. to education, from public health to whatever.
In those days it was learned that, in addition to invasions, threats and attacks on indigenous leaders in land reserves that are guaranteed to them by law, illegal miners harass indigenous women, especially adolescents, offering them food in exchange for sex.
When they are not taken care of, they are raped. Among the Ianomámi community, the most visited by illegal miners, cases of sexual diseases, mainly syphilis, are multiplying.
It is estimated that around twenty thousand “garimpeiros”, as the invaders are called, operate in Ianomámi territory.
There are records of cases in which women are forced to drink large amounts of alcoholic beverages before being raped. Cases of deaths following gang rapes were also reported.
All this occurs in the midst of widespread and severe environmental devastation, which means that indigenous people face increasingly serious difficulties in obtaining food. And also in this aspect the 350 inanomámi communities are the most affected.
The Federal Police received specific complaints but so far there have been no investigations.
And FUNAI, the National Indian Foundation, remained strictly silent when prosecuted by the media.