Suicide Epidemic Plagues Indigenous In Brazil

Somewhat like those who lost their jobs and homes in America, Brazil's indigenous Guarani nation lost their homes and way of life. And just like in America, suicide rates have skyrocketed.

Suicide Epidemic Plagues Indigenous In Brazil

The Brazilian indigenous Guarani nation has had their land taken away and way of life threatened - now a new study shows the suicide rate is 34 times higher than the national average.

To mark World Mental Health Day earlier this month, the human rights organization Survival International has presented new, shocking figures on the suicide epidemic striking Brazil’s indigenous Guarani people.

The Guarani nation, which numbers more than 46,000, has suicide rates no less than 34 times higher than their country's national average, and as Britain’s Guardian newspaper observed in a special report, the death rate in the Dourados camp housing one Guarani community is 50% higher than in Iraq.

Why? The Guarani have lost the greater part of the ancestral lands with which they have a deep spiritual connection because of the invasion of ranchers and sugar cane plantations. The natives are pushed into living on the roadside or are confined to reservations. They face malnutrition, precarious health and alcoholism.

Those communities that try and return to their lands face extreme violence at the hands of gunmen hired by ranchers to attack and often kill the Guarani.

This doesn't seem much different than the natives of the US. They have high suicide and disease rates.

In general, suicide rates have climbed globally since the beginning of the "great recession". My understanding is these suicides often have less to do with actual economic loss vs perceived loss. Some of the suicides are even elites who have to downgrade their standards of living.

24% of Native Canadians commit suicide before their 26th Birthday.

reply to post by abacus10


I wonder what the suicide rates are in Bosnia and other war-torn areas. People are not very kind to one another are they? And the fallout is long term. And it affects the whole world. eventually.