FRONTIER, SILENCE AND DEATH: WHAT DATA DOES NOT REVEAL ABOUT INDIGENOUS HOMICIDES IN AMAZONAS (2024)

Abstract

The statistical invisibility of vulnerable groups in public security systems constitutes a form of state omission with direct impact on public policy formulation. In Brazil, the inadequate completion of the race/color field in official records of violent mortality produces informational gaps that structurally affect the visibility of indigenous peoples in public security systems. This article analyzes the divergences between data on indigenous homicides recorded by the Amazonas State Public Security Secretariat (SSP/AM) and the Mortality Information System (SIM/DataSUS) across the 19 border municipalities of Amazonas in 2024. This is a documentary and quantitative study, exploratory and descriptive in nature, focused on the race/color field, category "indigenous." The results demonstrate that the SSP/AM recorded only 5 indigenous homicides, while DataSUS recorded 49 deaths in the same period and territorial scope — a divergence of 89.8%. Additionally, 75.28% of victims appear with race/color classified as "Not Identified" in the SSP/AM database, an index 2.46 times higher than that observed in Manaus. It is concluded that underreporting does not constitute a technical failure, but an active mechanism of statistical invisibility that perpetuates the institutional erasure of indigenous peoples and undermines the formulation of security public policies adequate to the reality of Amazonian border territories.