Less than a quarter of quilombo communities fully vaccinated

Edilson Pereira Dutra, 60, is a member of a quilombo in Cidade Ocidental, Goiás. Photo: José Cruz/ABr

A new survey by Conaq, an organization working for the rights of quilombolas (citizens from communities originally formed by runaway slaves in the West’s last country to abolish slavery), shows that only 24 percent of the country’s 445 quilombo communities have been fully immunized.

Meanwhile, 11 percent have yet to receive a single dose of coronavirus vaccine, despite these communities being included as priority groups on the national immunization plan.

Most unvaccinated quilombolas have been unable to receive jabs due to a lack of documentation, which they claim has been made more difficult during the Jair Bolsonaro administration.

The current government has actively sought to curb the land rights of both indigenous and quilombo communities. Created to promote black culture and regulate quilombola rights in Brazil, the Palmares Foundation has also become an institution that propagates racism instead of combating it. Its head, Sérgio Camargo, referred last year to the Brazilian Black Rights Movement as “bloody scum.”