REDUCING INFANT MORTALITY IN THE STATE OF MATO GROSSO DO SUL DEPENDS ON THE AVAILABILITY OF LAND, ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION, AND PRODUCTION ALTERNATIVES

 

The high rate of infant mortality in Mato Grosso do Sul has finally attracted the attention of the media and public institutions. In the region of Dourados, in the south region of the state, the number of babies who die before they are one year old hit the mark of 140 per 1,000 live births in 1999, fell to 46 in 2003, and rose again to 64 deaths per 1,000 children born alive 2004. In all of Mato Grosso do Sul, the average infant mortality rate for indigenous people was 33.25 deaths per 1,000 live births. The overall infant mortality rate in Brazil was approximately 24 per thousand in 2003.

 

The high infant mortality rate in Mato Grosso do Sul was reported by the District Indigenous Health Council and is now being investigated by the Public Prosecutor’s Office. The National Health Foundation (Funasa) and the Ministry of Development and Actions Against Hunger set up teams to evaluate and track the situation.

 

“Infant mortality figures in Dourados evince the chaotic situation which the Guarani-Kaiowá are facing in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul as a result of a historical process of plundering almost all of their territory and the lack of political will to find definitive solutions to the land issue,” said Egon Heck, from CIMI’s Mato Grosso do Sul regional office.

 

According to Heck, there are three key needs to be met in order to eliminate the nourishment problems these children are exposed to: land demarcation and ratification, environmental protection, and development of food production alternatives in indigenous lands. Assistance-oriented programs such as the Indigenous Zero Hunger Program can, if properly managed, lessen the problem in the short-term, but the situation in Mato Grosso do Sul is tied in with structural violence, which in turn is caused by the shortage of land and failure to ensure basic rights to indigenous citizens. “This structural violence is reflected in hunger, malnutrition and physical violence,” claims Heck.

 

Around 10,000 indigenous people from the Guarani-Kaiowá and Terena peoples live in the 3,475 hectares of the Dourados indigenous land. This area is small for the size of the population and the areas available for producing food are suffering environmental degradation.

 

Indigenous peoples are confined to small areas all over Mato Grosso do Sul. Amongst other examples, the dispute between farmers and indigenous people in the Nhande Ru Marangatu land should be highlighted, where indigenous people are in imminent danger of being thrown out of demarcated areas as a result of court decisions in favor of farmers of the region. Here, repossession – which could take place in February – will result in the destruction of manioc plantations set up by the indigenous people, worsening the food shortage problem. “This land is waiting only for ratification by the President of the Republic. No areas in Mato Grosso do Sul have been ratified under this administration,” said the Attorney General in Mato Grosso do Sul, Charles Pessoa.

 

The attorney confirmed that infant mortality in the state is caused by many factors. There are, for example, problems which prevent indigenous people from receiving basic food baskets granted by the government. Many of them have no documents, since they are not issued by Funai to people over twelve years old because of a decision taken by previous administrations of the official indigenous people’s agency.

 

IN THE STATE OF MINAS GERAIS, MAXAKALI CHILD DIES FOR LACK OF MEDICAL TREATMENT

 

An indigenous child of the Maxakali people died on January 9 after an episode of diarrhea and high fever. The Cimi team working in the region was in the Maxakali area on January 12 and found out that there were three other children who needed transport to see a doctor in the municipality of Santa Helena de Minas. One of them had a high fever and diarrhea, the other one had diarrhea with bleeding, and the third one had chicken pox symptoms.

 

The medical team that should visit the settlements has not been to the Maxakali area since November 2004, and there are no National Health Foundation (Funasa) vehicles to transport sick indigenous people to the municipality of Santa Helena de Minas, where the nearest base clinic is located. These base clinics provide the second-stage treatment to indigenous people after the health stations located in their villages.

 

“Is there any money for health? Is there anyone on call? What should we do? In the past we didn’t have Funasa and the Maxakali did not fall ill and die. We had the forest for preparing medicines. Now we don’t have any forests, we have Funasa, and the Maxakali are dying… what should we do? The Maxakali have to be treated well. Yes, there is money for this,” says indigenous leader Noêmia Maxakali, from the Água Boa village.

 

The missionary Gilse Freire said that she got in touch with the National Health Foundation (Funasa) in Governador Valadares and this institution told her that there were no resources to provide transportation in the Maxakali area or to ensure the supply of medicines to the base clinic.

 

The Cimi team in the region reports that there are no doctors on call at the clinic and that there is no electricity in the building, which means that medical equipment and computers cannot be used.

 

The indigenous people have already reported these facts to the Public Prosecutor’s Office and are scheduling a public hearing for February 23, 2005 in the Maxakali indigenous land.

 

According to the Maxakali leaders, 25 children died in the Maxakali indigenous land in 2004, where there is a population of around 1.200 people.

 

WSF 2005: PEOPLES EXCHANGE THEIR EXPERIENCES AMONGST THEMSELVES AND TRY TO FOSTER A DIALOGUE WITH NON-INDIGENOUS PEOPLE

 

On the penultimate day of the World Social Forum, January 30, indigenous people left the Arts and Knowledge Puxirum – where most activities of the Forum related to indigenous issues were concentrated – and walked around all of the “world social territory” distributing the second declaration prepared by the Brazilian peoples attending the event, in which they presented proposals for real changes in the Brazilian policy for indigenous people.

 

These proposals include changing the official policy for indigenous people through the creation of a special secretariat with ministerial powers directly linked to the Office of the President of the Republic and the establishment of a National Council for Indigenous Policies in which indigenous people would have an equal representation. In the document, they also ask for “a public demonstration by the Federal Government, as the party responsible for protecting all indigenous assets, against the passage of bill PLS188 by Congress, which is intended to set back all the demarcation processes which are yet to be concluded to their initial stage, so that the boundaries of our lands can be negotiated according to the economic and political interests represented in the Federal Senate.”

 

In the previous declaration, issued on January 28, the indigenous people exposed the persistence, the “neglect, disregard, and sluggishness of the government in guaranteeing the demarcation of our lands.”

 

The walkabout was an attempt to develop a dialogue with participants in other areas of the Forum, since the Puxirum was located in a remote corner of the “world social territory” where the activities of the 5th WSF were held, on the banks of the Guaíba River in Porto Alegre.

 

“The Puxirum was a bit isolated and the walkabout showed that there were indigenous people attending the Forum. It was a way of saying that indigenous people are here and that they are organized and fighting for their rights,” said Gilberto dos Santos, a Cimi missionary.

 

The fact that the indigenous people were concentrated in only one area was considered positive by several of their leaders. “It was a good opportunity to get together with other colleagues from the American continent to discuss common problems, such as the invasion of our territories, the non-demarcation of indigenous lands, and problems caused by the neoliberal project which encroaches on our lands,” said Antonio Veríssimo Apinajé, from Tocantins.

 

Antônio Apinajé also emphasized the relationship between the Latin American indigenous peoples and the need for the Brazilian indigenous people to develop closer relations with other social movements.

 

See the interview with Antônio Apinajé about the significance of the Forum below:

 

How would you evaluate the participation of indigenous people in the Forum?

I felt a high level of spirituality at this fifth Forum. I felt that indigenous people are really alive and are managing to convey and write their own history. At this moment, when the dominant project wants to impose its culture, its knowledge, its technologies on us, indigenous people have shown that they too have knowledge and that this knowledge can make a contribution for us to reinvent the situation we are facing in the world and build a world without evil. The planet will not withstand the present large-scale exploitation any longer and we can contribute to ensure a longer life to it.

 

What did you find interesting in this contact with other Latin American peoples?

It was interesting to hear reports such as those from Bolivia and Ecuador, where indigenous people are the majority. We heard that important political victories were won in Ecuador. They managed to remove a president who did not serve the interests of indigenous people and put another one in his place, but even this one is acting according to capitalist interests. In Brazil, there are few indigenous people, and I think that we have to join forces with social movements and fight harder.

 

What do you think is the most important thing to come out of the Forum?

I don’t think that much in the way of policies has come out of the Forum, because the government machinery is highly structured. I think that the Forum was more a meeting place for an exchange of experiences between indigenous people from all over the world. But I think it is important for us to move forward and show the dominant project, the empire out there, that we are more united now, more organized.

 

Brasília, 3 February 2005.

 

Cimi – Indianist Missionary Council