From the oxygen crisis in Manaus to the hunt for gold in illegal mining in the Amazon, see the highlights of 2021…
December 31, 2021
10:12
Luís Henrique Oliveira – Cenarium Magazine
MANAUS – After the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a pandemic of Covid-19 last year, due to the appearance of the new Coronavirus that resulted in the death of thousands of people in the world, the year 2021 was much expected by the entire population of the five continents. Not only expected, the arrival of this year was seen as a sign of hope, mainly, by the search for immunizers that could block infections by the virus.
In the Amazon it was no different, quite the contrary. In the middle of the forest, the arrival of the new coronavirus caused the economy to decline with the closing of commerce resulting in unemployment, and worse, it affected traditional populations and devastated dozens of indigenous people.
January
In mid-January, the country already counted 226,000 dead and was the second in the world, after the United States, with the highest number of Covid-19 fatalities in absolute terms. The number rose suddenly driven by the second wave of the pandemic that depleted the reserves of oxygen supplied to hospitalized patients, mainly in Amazonas. At the time, the daily demand in the state was around 76,000 m3 of oxygen, and the supply companies could not produce more than 28,200 m3.
In Manaus, dozens of people suffocated to death for lack of oxygen. Overloaded, state authorities had to impose a curfew, while the government evacuated patients to other states, organized oxygen shipments to Manaus and even received a donation from impoverished Venezuela.
Everything seemed dark with those hundreds of deaths, dozens every day. Until the first doses of the Covid-19 vaccine arrived in Amazonas around 6:45 pm on January 18. A plane of the Brazilian Air Force (FAB) transported the immunizers from São Paulo, and landed at the Manaus Air Base, in the South zone, sent by the Ministry of Health.
Hours later, the state immunized the first person on Amazonian soil. Vanda Ortega, a nursing technician and indigenous of the Witoto ethnicity, received the first dose of the vaccine in the state, representing thousands of women who work on the front line in the fight against the disease. On International Women’s Day, she recalls her trajectory, which includes struggle, study, dedication to public service, and commitment to the lives of hundreds of indigenous people, mainly women.
Vanda was born in the municipality of Amaturá, 909 kilometers from Manaus, and currently lives in the Parque das Tribos neighborhood, in the western part of the capital of Amazonas. After arriving in the city at the age of 16, she worked for eight years as a maid in family homes, until she got a job as a store clerk.
February
But it was enough for the vaccine to arrive in Manaus to start the lack of organization in the municipality, as in the case of the seven of the ten doctors cited in an investigation by the Public Ministry of Amazonas about “fakery” in the vaccination against Covid-19 in Manaus that were exonerated by the City Hall of the capital. Among the names, are the twins Isabelle and Gabrielle Kirk Maddy Lins. The two received the first dose of the vaccine on January 19 – the same day one of them was hired. The other was hired on the 18th, one day earlier.
The scheme of fura-filas in vaccination against Covid-19 organized by the Manaus City Hall was again highlighted on national network and echoed on the first day of February. The program Fantastic, the Globo Network, showed details of the investigation of the Public Ministry of Amazonas (MP-AM) that investigates allegations of vaccinated people who were not among the priorities and claims that the city hired doctors in violation of the law.
According to the MP-AM, the city hall found an irregular way to hire ten doctors on the eve of the beginning of vaccination and had no control over who should be immunized.
March
It was in March that Pope Francis started the 33rd international trip of his pontificate. In Iraq he was to stay until the 8th, fulfilling an agenda that included meetings with authorities and religious – both Christian and Muslim. It was a day full of symbolism.
Francis chose the motto “you are all brothers”, taken from the Gospel of Matthew, for the trip, with which he intends to emphasize the need for peace, regardless of religious belief.
The geopolitical context of the Middle East, the pandemic that has been ravaging the world since the beginning of last year, and the very unprecedented nature of a papal visit to Iraq all contribute to making this episode a historical fact.
April
As royal consort, it was Prince Philip’s duty to accompany his spouse, Queen Elizabeth II, in her duties as sovereign: official visits to other countries, state dinners and receptions, opening speeches to Parliament, ceremonies and honorary rites.
Philip, who died on April 9 at the age of 99, was usually discreet about what he thought of these assignments. Although he said that if he could choose which profession to devote himself to, “I’d rather have stayed in the Navy, frankly”, he also said in the same interview with the Independent in 1992 that he “tried to make the best” of life as an adjunct to his 74-year marriage.
March also saw a visit by President of the Republic Jair Bolsonaro on the 23rd. The presence of the president encouraged agglomerations among supporters waiting to receive him, disrespecting the sanitary protocols determined by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Bolsonaro was in the capital of Amazonas to inaugurate the second stage of the Vasco Vasquez Convention Center (CCAVV) – which was funded with federal and state resources – and for the symbolic delivery of food baskets to people in situations of social vulnerability. In the place, he made a speech criticizing, once again, lockdown measures and affirming that he is taking the country out of the “claws of the nefarious Brazilian left”.
May
Once again, the Covid-19 pandemic scared the hell out of Brazilians by taking away the one who was responsible for pulling big smiles even in the face of difficult situations. On May 4, actor and comedian Paulo Gustavo, one of the most popular and admired artists in the country, died at age 42, victim of Covid-19. The creator of Dona Hermínia and other unforgettable characters in theater, TV, and cinema, he had been hospitalized since March 13 at Copa Star Hospital, in Copacabana, in Rio’s South Zone.
Paulo Gustavo’s health worsened on March 2, when he suffered a pulmonary embolism. Before that, he had been showing significant improvements – he had even reduced sedatives and blockers and was interacting with doctors and his husband, Thales Bretas.
On the same day, the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI) of the Senate Pandemic begins to hear, semi-attendance, the first testimonies of former ministers of health. Luiz Henrique Mandetta and Nelson Teich will be heard, respectively, from 10am and 2pm.
Both will be present in the CPI room and will be heard as witnesses. Mandetta left his post at the beginning of the pandemic, in mid-April 2020. At the time, Brazil had registered 1,924 deaths. Doctor Nelson Teich, who succeeded Mandetta, stayed less than a month in the ministry. The CPI lasted 6 months after being extended for 90 days and heard dozens of employees, directors and health agents linked to the Ministry of Health and supplier companies.
After asking for help from the federal government and failing to get it, a Yanomami child just over a year old died on May 21 in the Yarita community within the Yanomami Indigenous Land in Roraima. The malnutrition condition was so severe that the boy was unable to wail or cry. A request to remove him from the region and have him taken to the capital, Boa Vista, was not heeded. The reports are from the president of the District Council of Indigenous Health Yanomami and Ye’kuanna (Condisi-YY), Junior Hekurari Yanomami.
Around 30 thousand indigenous people live in the reserve, in more than 300 communities. Junior Yanomami, president of Condisi, accompanied a team from TV Globo’s Fantástico TV show to three communities: Surucucu, Heweteu and Xaruna. The case took on national proportions in the press.
June
It was in June that the Rio Negro reached its maximum flood level, the highest ever. The river level reached 30 meters on the 5th, exceeding by 3 centimeters the record high recorded in 2012.
With the pandemic still showing signs, the Parintins Folkloric Festival had to be canceled for the second year in a row. Despite the strong economic dependence of the municipality on the Festival, the cancellation was decided to avoid the high risk of contamination of the public, the artists, other workers of the event structure and the local population. The event takes place annually in June.
But it was also in June that Lázaro Barbosa Sousa, 32 years old, was killed by the police, after another confrontation with officers who are part of the task force created to look for him. After being shot, he was taken to a hospital in the region, but he did not resist his injuries. The exchange of fire was in Itamaracá, in Águas Lindas de Goiás, region where the criminal was being sought.
The protagonist of a cinematographic escape, Lázaro had lost hundreds of police officers. During 20 days, 270 police officers were searching for the serial killer. The search included teams from the Civil and Military Police of Goiás and the Federal District, the Federal Police, the Federal Highway Police, the Penitentiary Board of Special Operations (DF) and the Military Fire Department (CBMGO).
According to the Security Department of Goiás, Lázaro was investigated for more than 30 crimes, committed in that state, in Bahia and in the Federal District. He is suspected in the deaths of four people from the same family in Ceilândia, DF, and of the employee of a farm in the district of Girassol, in Goiás.
July
An outstanding fact was the space trip of American businessman Jeff Bezos, owner of Amazon and Blue Origin, on the 20th, which was successfully completed. The billionaire was launched in a rocket from a base in Texas, USA. The entire trip lasted 10 minutes and 20 seconds.
The adventure made history for being the first one occupied only by civilians and without the presence of a pilot. In addition to the mogul, on board were his brother Mark Bezos, octogenarian pilot Wally Funk, who trained to participate in space operations in the 1960s, and 18-year-old Oliver Daemen, who became the youngest person ever to go into space.
The quartet arrived in space within four minutes of launch. The boosters returned safely to the ground after 7 minutes and 20 seconds.
This same month, a year late, caused by the global coronavirus pandemic, Tokyo finally held the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games on the 23rd. The ceremony began with a tribute to the athletes who have worked hard to get to Tokyo 2020, with the motto “United by emotion”.
Several Japanese athletes represented this effort with choreography in the middle of the Tokyo Olympic Stadium. A beautiful dance made with red threads, symbolizing the twisting of the athletes’ muscles filled the stadium field.
August
In August, the plenary of the House of Representatives rejected, on the 10th, the Printed Voting PEC (Proposed Amendment to the Constitution 135/19). There were 229 votes in favor, 218 against and 1 abstention. As it did not reach the minimum of 308 votes in favor, the text will be shelved.
The rejected proposal, authored by Congresswoman Bia Kicis (PSL-DF), determined the printing of “physical ballots that can be checked by the voter” regardless of the medium used to register votes in elections, plebiscites and referenda.
After the vote, the president of the House, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), thanked the deputies for their democratic behavior. “The democracy of the Plenary of this House gave an answer to this issue and, in the House, I hope this matter is definitively buried,” he said.
The vote was the third defeat of the printed ballot in the House, as the issue was rejected in two votes in the special committee last week.
President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) visited Manaus, on the 18th, to inaugurate a popular housing complex. The plane with his entourage landed at Eduardo Gomes airport. Without a mask, he greeted supporters who were waiting at the airport entrance and generated agglomeration. Then, he got into a car and stood, with the door open, heading to the residential area.
Besides Bolsonaro, pastors Marco Feliciano and Silas Malafaia, Minister of Tourism Gilson Machado, and former Minister of Health Eduardo Pazuello, current Secretary of Strategic Studies of the Special Secretariat of Strategic Affairs of the Presidency, were on the train.
September
In September, governor Wilson Lima announced the payment of the State Aid on a permanent basis for 300 thousand families in situations of social vulnerability throughout the state of Amazonas. There are 158 thousand beneficiaries in the capital and 142 thousand in the countryside, which will receive the monthly value of R$ 150. The payment is scheduled to start in November of this year.
According to the governor, the State Government, besides making the benefit payment permanent, is expanding the State Aid policy, created to guarantee food security and social protection. A decree regulating the benefit will be published and the amount will be passed on by means of a card. Families will be able to use the resource in accredited establishments.
To define the beneficiaries, the cash transfer program will use data from the Amazon population enrolled in the Federal Government’s Unified Registry (CadÚnico). The CadÚnico is the set of information on Brazilian families living in poverty and extreme poverty, created to implement public policies capable of promoting improvements in the lives of these families.
But not all Brazilians had the same opportunity. The economic crisis generated by the pandemic brought back a threat to part of the Brazilians: hunger. With high inflation and unemployment, the country has started to register more scenes of people looking for food donations and even items rejected by supermarkets. The most recent case to gain repercussion occurred in the South Zone of Rio de Janeiro.
At the end of September, a report in the newspaper Extra showed that a truck with leftover meat and bones in the Glória neighborhood became a distribution point for hungry people who do not have enough money to buy food.
Read more: In Bolsonaro Government, Amazonians eat chicken feet and cook with firewood
October
In October, a controversy was in the spotlight, once again driven by the sexist speeches of Jair Bolsonaro, this because the president vetoed the free distribution of pads for low-income people, a measure provided for in Bill 4968 of 2019, which was approved by the House of Representatives and Federal Senate.
In a publication in the Federal Official Gazette on the 7th, the president sanctioned the creation of a Menstrual Health Protection and Promotion Program with a “strategy” for the “promotion of health and attention to feminine hygiene”.
November
Txai Surui was the face that marked this year’s COP26 in Glasgow. At 24 years old, she was the first indigenous woman to speak at the opening of a climate conference, on the 1st. In the midst of the suits, the young woman wearing a headdress of colorful feathers pointed out the urgency of efficient measures to stop climate change, besides emphasizing the importance of indigenous peoples in the protection of the Amazon.
Txai cited in his speech the death of the indigenous man Ari Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau, who worked to register and denounce illegal timber extractions within the village where he lived. According to Txai, he was killed for defending the forest.
Finally, the young activist also demanded the participation of indigenous peoples in the decisions that involve measures to combat climate change, stating that they are on the front line and have ideas that should also be considered.
Days later, a piece of information took everyone by surprise. The plane carrying the singer Marília Mendonça and part of her crew had crashed on November 5 in a waterfall in the interior of Minas Gerais. Initially, the information was that all passengers had survived, but soon after, images showed the singer being taken out of the aircraft lifeless. The country came to a halt, and fans from all over the country descended on Goiânia, where the 26-year-old singer was mourned and buried.
The police found that the aircraft carrying Marilia hit transmission tower wires after reducing altitude, minutes before landing in the city of Caratinga. In Cenipa’s statistics panel, Sipaer (Aeronautical Accidents Investigation and Prevention System), available on the internet, the accident with the Beechcraft King Air C90 was categorized as a CFIT (Controlled Flight Into Terrain) – a collision with the ground in controlled flight.
On the 24th, an image went viral on social networks after a denunciation by Greenpeace. Hundreds of rafts and dredges were installed on the Madeira River in the Amazon for illegal mining activities. According to the environmental preservation organization, the rafts were in place for about 15 days, after information emerged that there was gold in the region. In all, about 300 rafts were found at the site.
Read more: Madeira River: Eldorado and environmental risk
The accusation caused the case to gain national and international repercussion. After the case, the Federal Police (PF), with support from the National Security Forces, and other agencies dedicated to the preservation of the environment, launched an operation in the region of Madeira River, in the Amazon, which resulted in the arrest of three people and the seizure and destruction of 131 rafts used for illegal mining.
Although mining is a common and publicly known clandestine activity in this region, the “atypical” movement in Autazes (100 kilometers from Manaus) drew the attention of the population, according to Greenpeace, who demanded greater speed from the authorities to stop this “environmental crime”.
December
A sad case had repercussions in Manaus and brought to light the lack of security in the capital. Melquisedeque Santos de Vale, 20 years old, was brutally murdered with a shot to the head on December 16 when he was returning home after a day of work. Outraged by the untimely death of the young indigenous Sateré-Mawé man, friends and family organized a demonstration to demand justice and more security.
But still in the last month of the year, a good news took over the Amazon. The governor of the State, Wilson Lima (PSC), He announced, on Wednesday, 15, the payment of the Fund for Maintenance and Development of Basic Education and the Appreciation of Professional Education (Fundeb) professionals who work in the State Secretariat of Education and Sports (Seduc). The bonus is the highest amount ever paid in the history of the state, where teachers will receive up to R$37.9 thousand for those who work 60 hours. Those who work 20 hours will receive R$ 12,700 and teachers with 40 hours, R$ 25,200.