Several indigenous leaders in the Amazon region called for international assistance in the face of the lack of structures, including medical facilities, which makes them vulnerable to the new coronavirus, and warned of a risk of "ethnocide", the disappearance of their communities.

"There are no doctors in our communities, there is no prevention equipment to deal with this pandemic (...) There is no support in terms of food," said José Gregorio Diaz Mirabal of the Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (Coica).

In a joint videoconference with Amnesty International, these indigenous leaders deplored the little assistance they receive from governments in the region, despite the spread of Covid-19.

They called for "international humanitarian aid" to prevent "an ethnocide throughout the Amazon basin", according to Diaz Mirabal.

He also denounced the fact that illegal mining and logging companies were taking advantage of the containment, imposed in several of these countries, to act with "impunity" and expose communities to contagion.

According to Coida, which represents indigenous people from the nine countries that share the world's largest rainforest (Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, Bolivia, Surinam, Guyana, French Guyana), there is no global registry of cases of contamination among Amerindians.