A tragic year for indigenous peoples in Brazil

Welcome to the “Number of the Week,” where we choose a single figure that helps understand what is going on in Brazil. This week, we show how 2020 was a tragic year for indigenous groups in Brazil. 

1,191

cases of violations in or against indigenous lands in 2020

In Brazil, 2020 was marked by the soaring number of Covid-19 deaths and the government’s pandemic mismanagement. It would be expected that the sanitary crisis could have at least slowed down forays into indigenous lands by miners, loggers, and land grabbers. Instead, last year saw an alarming increase in violence against Brazilian native peoples, from violations of indigenous lands and illegal exploitation of resources to the murder of members of different groups across the country.

According to an annual report by the Indigenous Missionary Council (Cimi), released this Thursday, the overall violence “against the person” and “against indigenous property” in 2020 was the highest in the last five years – even if not all types of violence against native populations showed an increase compared to 2019.