The Murder of the Indians of Brazil
ALREADY FACING THE THREAT of extinction from disease-contacts with whites, the Indians of Brazil have also been the target ofdeliberate extermination efforts with bacteriological weapons....
...In a report of the Interior Department, General Albuquerque Lima, former Interior Minister, wrote that "the refinements of this criminal penetration brought bacteriological warfare to the backwoods by meansof 'gifts' to the forest inhabitants of clothing, impregnated with . microbes . . .; their food was poisoned, their children kidnapped...
...Arsenicwas added to Indian sugar supplies by onevindictive planter, according to LorenzoHamilton, Vice President of the National Foundation for the Indian, which has taken over the SPI's functions...
...The Oayanas Indianshave been particularly vulnerable to epidemics of acute pneumonopathy...
...The impending trial hasspotlighted the danger of total extinctionfor the South American Indians, even without the deliberate onslaughts against them, Dr...
...ALREADY FACING THE THREAT of extinction from disease-contacts with whites, the Indians of Brazil have also been the target ofdeliberate extermination efforts with bacteriological weapons...
...the forest tribesmen were shamelessly murdered...
...Patrick Braun, Medical Attache to the French Department of Overseas Territory, told Medical Tribune of the mass murder conspiracy...
...Braun is convinced that there is only one way to save the Indians...
...Braun has examinedfiles of the Departments of Agriculture andInterior, and reviewed a comprehensive5,115-page investigative report by the Brazilian government...
...Smallpox, influenza, tuberculosis andmeasles, often transmitted by intentionallycontaminated gifts, were brought into theMato Grosso area...
...Braun pointed out...
...Hecites French policy in French Guiana, which bans all unauthorized entry into Indianterritories, and suggests that the Braziliantribesmen be left "undisturbed in their own lands, which should be accessible only to outsiders with medical and scientific missions.,, —Reprinted from The Sciences, April 1970...
...Although the Brazilian government hasbegun to build hospitals to care for thetribesmen, Dr...
...Lastwinter, Dr...
...seekingto appropriate Indian lands in a mannerrecalling the massacres which in the last century nearly exterminated the Indians ofNorth America," said General Costa Cavalcanti, present Minister of the Interior...
...First exposed tothe white man 20 years ago, the northeastern Brazilian Urubu tribe, for example, has suffered a series of severe measles epidemics, one of which killed nearly a fifth ofthe tribe's members...
...This spring, 134 officialsof the now-defunct 700-member Government Service for the Protection of Indians (SPI) are scheduled for trial...
...One cannot speak of genocide but ratherof vicious crimes, committed by unscrupulous adventurers employed . . . by local economic and political powers...
...Medical Tribune, Dec...
...Brazilian plantationowners, adventurers and government officials are accused of attempting to takeover valuable Indian lands by deliberatelyintroducing pathogenic organisms into theAmazon basin tribes...
...Smallpox attackson the Cintas Largas tribesmen were followed by armed assaults...
...The extermination attempts, a well-kept secret outside Brazil until quiterecently, date back at least 13 years...
...8, 1969) Department of the Interior documentssuggest that the severe tuberculosis epidemics of the mid-1960's, which devastated tribes of the northeastern Amazon basin, were also deliberately induced, Dr...
...Braun reports...
...Landowners and speculators usedan infected mestizo to introduce the tubercle bacillus...
...BACTERIOLOGICAL WARFARE was only onephase of the extermination effort...
...lacking immunologic defenses against these diseases, the Indianswere often fatally vulnerable to the resulting epidemics...
...because they lacked prior immunity, "countless victims died quickly," states Medical Tribune...
Vol. 17 • July 1970 • No. 4
