We are witnessing the devastating effects of negligent and narcissistic government leadership, as COVID-19 cases continue to explode from the U.S. to the Amazon. Scientists, health experts, and Indigenous peoples are rightfully calling out governments for their failure to prevent the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people.

In the Amazon, our Indigenous partners warned us months ago about the potential ethnocide they were facing as health systems – already inaccessible to many Indigenous communities – began to collapse. Their warning is now a harrowing reminder that government inaction was and continues to be intentional.

Given this situation, the Munduruku and Kayapo peoples in the Brazilian Amazon turned to Amazon Watch and we used our Amazon Defenders Fund to deliver oxygen concentrators, medical supplies, generators, hygienic materials, and food kits. The Fund continues to be a last line of defense in the fight against COVID-19.