Indigenous leaders issue plea for COVID pandemic protection
Indigenous leaders from across South America on Monday issued a desperate plea for protection against the COVID-19 pandemic, warning that the virus poses an "existential threat" to their communities.
With billions confined to their homes as the world tries to slow its unprecedented spread, tribes in the Amazon and Chaco regions are urging governments to ensure their territories are protected against outsiders possibly carrying the coronavirus.
"Indigenous people living in voluntary isolation are especially vulnerable to infectious disease as they don't have any immunity at all against most diseases," said Claudette Labonte, from the Congress of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA).
"We call on governments to intensify surveillance and protection of indigenous territories, many of which are invaded by miners, drug traffickers, loggers, land-grabbers and tourists," Labonte, a member of the Kamuyeneh community in French Guiana, told AFP.
She said that illegal miners were .