The Triple Border between Peru, Colombia and Brazil is suffering one of the hardest blows of the pandemic. Without health resources and with outstanding historical debts, Amazonian indigenous groups are dwindling, while the Leticia hospital collapses. The Peruvian-Colombian binational committee will seek, against the clock, to save the population in the border, where COVID-19 is already causing deaths. Will they manage to do it on time?

By José Carlos Díaz*

RCII, May 23, 2020. - Since the coronavirus reached the Amazon, various organizations have warned about the vulnerable situation of indigenous peoples. In a few weeks, it spread and the fatal victims count began within the Amazon territory. This has even reached the most remote places like the Triple Border (or Amazon Trapezium), the division between Colombia, Brazil and Peru.

Precisely in Peru the contagion and death curve has been out of control in recent weeks. In mid-April, the Regional Organization of Indigenous Peoples of the East (ORPIO) warned that the lack of control in the Triple Border, specifically due to the unrestricted transit of people between the Amazon and Putumayo rivers, could affect the two largest indigenous groups from the area: the Tikunas and Yaguas.

On April 22, Francisco Cayetano (1), president of the Federation of Tikuna and Yaguas Communities of the Lower Amazon (Fecotyba) stated:

"We are very concerned about their proximity to our communities, since there are two infected by the Peruvian side, four in Leticia (Colombia) and eleven in Tabatinga (Brazil) [...] Despite this danger, communities and outsiders do not they respect quarantine (on the Peruvian shore) and go out to buy groceries from Tabatinga and Leticia. We Tikuna are at great risk.”

In early May, the Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Jungle (Aidesep) reported that several indigenous leaders had tested positive for COVID-19, including its president, Lizardo Cauper (2). Despite having this disease, Cauper participated this week in a dialogue with the Peruvian Society for Environmental Law (SPDA) and the Vice Ministry of Interculturality where he denounced the systematic abandonment of this area by the Peruvian State.

What is happening in the Triple Border?

The days passed and Francisco Cayetano's concern came true mid-May.  A week ago, the Regional Organization of the Indigenous Peoples of the East (ORPIO) reported that there were 50 alleged coronavirus cases and seven confirmed deaths within the Tikuna ethnic group (3) in the Bellavista de Callarú community, on the Peruvian side of the Triple Border.

With a population of just 3 thousand inhabitants, the community of Bellavista de Callarú runs a serious risk of extinction. As Fecotyba has reported, there is only one medical post on the Peruvian side of the Triple Border, the same that has been overflowing in capacity since April. On May 11, this federation sent a letter to the Ministries of Health and Culture of Peru asking them to send help, something that has not arrived yet.

In Leticia, the largest city in the area, there are 1,796 cases to date, which, with a total population of 45,000 inhabitants, makes it the city with the highest demographic rate of infection in Colombia. Leticia also receives patients from Tabatinga, the closest Brazilian city.

With a collapsed healthcare system, with just seven artificial respirators, last weekend the only oxygen production plant in Leticia was damaged, forcing the urgent transfer (4) of some intensive care patients to Bogotá. So far, there are 47 confirmed deaths in Leticia, although it is feared that the number will inevitably increase.

Plaza de Leticia. Fuente: Jonathan Hurtado

Historical Debt

In the midst of a pandemic, the historical debt to this region (without health infrastructure, high index of poverty and insecurity) has begun taking its toll. Aware of this, the governments of Peru and Colombia agreed to create a binational committee aimed at executing a comprehensive plan for their border populations.

The committee was created officially on May 14 and finished settling on Wednesday, May 20. Among its founding objectives, “assigning a special priority to the study and monitoring of the pandemic impact on indigenous or native peoples living in the area of border integration” stands out.

Likewise, from the Colombian side, there are some signs that would question the commitment of the Iván Duque administration to the Amazon. For example, last week the official majority archived a bill that sought to ban the extraction of hydrocarbons in the jungle, another of the great problems that has historically affected indigenous populations.

Despite the latter, and without the participation of Brazil, the Jair Bolsonaro administration has deliberately decided to ignore its border population. The Peruvian and Colombian governments will have to work against the clock to save the demographic decline already suffered by certain ethnic groups and start paying some historical debts. Will they be able to do it on time?

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* José Carlos Díaz is a Journalist and PhD student of cultural studies at Rutgers University.

The International Indigenous Communication Network (RCII) in a joint process of communicators from Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Panama, Peru and Mexico strengthened at the International Indigenous Communication Meeting (EICI 2019) held in October 2019 in Cusco, Peru.

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Source URL: https://www.servindi.org/actualidad-noticias/22/05/2020/el-covid-arremete-en-laselva-que-sucede-en-el-trapecio-amazonico-2 

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