Ramsey: ... The response of the federal government in Brazil has been entirely led by the military, and on one hand that's good because the military has a reliable logistical capacity. They can move large quantities of aid, but it's also problematic because the government has tasked the military with providing security at the various shelters that operate on the border, and these are soldiers. These are not people that have much experience in providing direct humanitarian aid, and you see it on the ground.
When I went to the indigenous shelter in Pacaraima, which is directly on the Venezuelan border, I was taught a new word in Portuguese by the captain in charge of the shelter that I spoke with. ... He was telling me that he thinks that these Venezuelans, these indigenous Venezuelans who are crossing the border, are "gafanhotos." And I was asking what that meant, and he was saying, "Oh, they're coming, and they're eating, and they're moving on." And I was like, "Oh, so you mean they're like ... their tribe is nomadic, related to their customs?"
And he was like, "No, no," and he put it into his phone on Google Translate, and he showed me that "gafanhoto" actually means "locust," and he was saying that these indigenous Venezuelans that are crossing into Brazil are locusts, because he thinks that they're using up state resources and don't have any intentions for providing for themselves, and I think that really pairs with reports that I've heard from our partners of open discrimination from the military and a refusal to recognize local traditions in the indigenous shelters and a lack of respect for indigenous authorities in these shelters.
I think it's sort of an underreported aspect of the Brazilian response to the crisis, and one that I try to just put a pin in for everybody, because in many ways Brazil deserves praise for what it's doing, but there's problems there as well.