COVID-19 Highlights Precariousness in Indigenous Communities

Historically, indigenous communities have been pushed aside when it comes to budget allocation, infrastructure projects and, more recently, COVID-19 protection measures. But these communities decided not to stand idly and installed their own blockades and curfews to protect their villages, local leaders and officials told Reuters.

Deputy Minister of Health, Hugo López-Gatell reported yesterday that the number of infected in the country increased to 8,261, while the death toll rises to 686. Out of those, more than 70 of confirmed cases have been people that speak an indigenous language and at least 13 of them have died. In rural Mexico, indigenous communities are located in remote locations, away from hospitals and with poor medical care, making them more vulnerable. 

On March 30, the government declared a health emergency and ordered non-essential companies to close. In the hills of Oaxaca, local authorities in Santa Maria Yaviche agreed to detain anyone entering or leaving unless there is an emergency and no one can leave their house after 9 p.m. Likewise, in Chiapas, the rebel Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional ordered its villages to go into lockdown weeks before such measures were implemented by the federal government.

"In our communities, we often do not realize how serious the situation is, because we have always experienced isolation and solved problems in community and in solidarity," Oswaldo Martínez, who presents a radio program, said in an interview for the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "The blockade is a mechanism for people to be aware of the seriousness of the situation," he pointed out.

According to INEGI, about a fifth of Mexico's population identifies as indigenous. And as COVID-19 approaches these communities, this proportion in Mexico faces a great challenge as only 1.5 percent of the country's public hospital facilities are in rural areas.