Reflections on the agribusiness and exposure to the covid-19 pandemic in the Guarani Kaiowá indigenous lands in Mato Grosso do Sul

Abstract

Ethnocide is an increasingly closer reality as covid-19 spreads through Mato Grosso do Sul, MS, a region where the Guarani Kaiowá ethnic group, the second-largest indigenous ethnic group in Brazil, predominates. According to the annual report presented by the Indigenist Missionary Council (CIMI, Conselho Indigenista Missionário), Mato Grosso do Sul is the state where violence against indigenous peoples is most recorded. One of the main elements to understand this escalation of violence is precisely the lack of demarcation of their traditional territories; after all, with populated villages and without the rapid removal of the indigenous people who are inserted as the production force of agribusiness in Mato Grosso do Sul, the coronavirus found the perfect setting to spread quickly. In this essayistic text, we intend to demonstrate a view on the vulnerability of these peoples to covid-19, which is aggravated by the dismantling of indigenous health policies, the scrapping of the official indigenous body, and the disastrous conduct of government actions by the federal government during a pandemic. The present study has a critical and reflective character, and seeks to contribute to the understanding of the socio-cultural and political context in which indigenous peoples are inserted, using bibliographic and documentary research as a methodological contribution, as well as the life and field experience of the authors.