An open letter signed by prominent figures including Madonna, Oprah Winfrey and Paul McCartney has called on Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro to take immediate action to protect the country's indigenous peoples from what they describe as a Covid-19 'genocide'. The letter, organised by photojournalist Sebastião Salgado, warns that the pandemic poses an extreme threat to the survival of Amazon tribes who have no means to combat the virus.
The signatories urge the expulsion of illegal gold miners and loggers from indigenous lands, saying these trespassers risk introducing the disease to vulnerable communities. Salgado, who has documented the Amazon for decades, said: 'We are on the eve of a genocide.' He compared the potential loss of life to the 1994 Rwandan genocide, warning that 300,000 indigenous people in the Brazilian Amazon face annihilation.
Critics accuse Bolsonaro of encouraging invasions of indigenous reserves and dismantling protective agencies. The letter notes that the pandemic has paralysed remaining protection efforts, leaving tribes exposed to infection from outsiders. Fears escalated last month after the death of a Yanomami teenager, recalling epidemics that killed up to 50% of some villages in the 1970s and 80s.
Salgado is calling for an army-led taskforce to evict intruders from protected areas. He believes international pressure, similar to that which led to military deployment to fight Amazon fires last year, could force the government to act. 'Just in the Brazilian Amazon we have 103 indigenous groups which have never been contacted – they represent humanity's pre-history,' he said. 'We cannot allow all of this to disappear.'
