Newsletter nº. 822

 

– Execution of two Truká continues unpunished

– nine Pirahã die because of absent healthcare

 

 

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Execution of two Truká continues unpunished

 

The 30th of June it has been three years that Adenilson dos Santos and his son Jorge dos Santos of the Truká people were executed by military policemen. In spite of the evidence the assassins have never been punished.

 

Adenilson, Dena for his friends, and Jorge were in the middle of a festive event in their village, within the Truká área, when four military police officers invaded the party celebration shooting in the air. Deno, who was in the middle of the crowd was hit. When Jorge saw his father hurt he tried to defend him and was shot as well, dying instantly.

 

Lenient

“When the indigenous wanted to take them to the hospital the police stopped them and shot the tires of the car that was going to transport them,” Pretinha Truká relates. She also tells that in these three years there have been only two interrogations. One with the four accused and, only one month ago, six witnesses were called.

The Truká community does not want the trial to be in Cabrobó, nor that it is done by a state court. The argument: there is clear evidence that the murders are linked to a land conflict. This makes it a case for a Federal court. A local court is easily influenced and is likely to be lenient. While the case is lingering in the drawers of a state court, the murderers remain unpunished.

 

Rice producers

Acts of repression, assassins and criminalization of indigenous leaders are motivated by the reconquest of land that the Truká claim to belong to them traditionally. They evicted farmers and owners of marihuana plantations of their land and developed into major rice producers.

As every year, the Truká community will remember the murders of Dena and Jorge with a public manifestation and protest against the impunity of the assassins.

 

nine Pirahã die because of absent healthcare

 

Eight children and one adult of the Pirahã people have died of malaria between January and June this year, due to the lack of healthcare for the communities along the Maici and Ipixuna rivers (Amazon region).

 

The Pirahã are an indigenous people that maintains little contact with the surrounding society and count approximately 230 individuals. Because of this small number the death of nine members is even more worrisome.

 

The indigenous in the region have reported the lack of healthcare in the city of Humaitá, at 450 kilometers of Manaus, several times. The municipality of Manicoré is responsible for the health service in these villages..

 

“Nobody knows why the medical team won´t come to our areas, whether it is because of a lack of resources, or because these resources are diverted,” informs the indigenous Júnior Tenharim. “It hás been a long time that the team came to the área and, when they were here, it was a flash visit: they arrive one day and leave the next day again.” He is afraid that “Without the presence of health professionals other deaths may occur.”

 

The District Council for indigenous Healthcare notified the regional Funasa Office of cases of malaria, tuberculosis, leprosis, diarrhea, among other diseases as well as malnutrition, causing the death of fourteen Indians in that region. Besides the nine Pirahã also five persons of other indigenous people.

 

The regional Funasa coordinator, Narciso Cardoso Barbosa, confirmed that malaria in the region is endemic. However, the Funasa encounters difficulties to control the situation on its own. “We are trying to work out a cooperation with the State Health Authorities, the municipality of Manicoré.” Another obstacle, according to him, is the difficult access to the indigenous villages.

 

 

(Source: J. Rosha of the Cimi Norte I team)