We are on the eve of a genocide’: Brazil urged to save Amazon from Covid-19

Brazil’s leaders must take immediate action to save the country’s indigenous peoples from a Covid-19 “genocide”, a global coalition of artists, celebrities, scientists, and intellectuals has said. In an open letter to Brazil, figures including Madonna, Oprah Winfrey, Brad Pitt, David Hockney and Paul McCartney warned the pandemic meant indigenous communities in the Amazon faced “an extreme threat to their very survival”.

“Five centuries ago, these ethnic groups were decimated by diseases brought by European colonisers … Now, with this new scourge spreading rapidly across Brazil … [they] may disappear completely since they have no means of combating Covid-19,” they wrote.

The organiser of the petition, the Brazilian photojournalist Sebastião Salgado, said trespassers including wildcat gold miners and illegal loggers must be expelled immediately from indigenous lands to stop them importing an illness that has killed more than 240,000 people around the world, including 6,750 in Brazil. “We are on the eve of a genocide,” Salgado, who has spent nearly four decades documenting the Amazon and its inhabitants, told the Guardian.

Even before Covid-19, Brazil’s indigenous peoples were locked in what activists call a historic struggle for survival. Fears Covid-19 could devastate indigenous communities grew last month when the death of a Yanomami teenager revived horrific memories of epidemics caused by roadbuilders and gold prospectors in the 1970s and 80s. The Brazilian city so far worst hit by coronavirus is Manaus, the capital of Amazonas, the state where part of the Yanomami reserve is located.

Salgado – who is calling for the creation of an army-led taskforce to evict intruders from protected areas – believes international pressure could force the government to act.

Adapted from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/03/eve-of-genocide-brazil-urged-save-amazon-tribes-covid-19-sebastiao-salgado

Choose the alternative that has the sentence “... these ethnic groups were decimated by diseases brought by European colonisers …” (paragraph 2) correctly changed into active voice.