The federal police have opened an investigation into the Yanomami genocide.
Brazil has begun evicting illegal gold miners from the lands of the Yanomami indigenous people in Roraima. Roraima is located below Venezuela in northern Brazil.
Illegal mining encouraged by the previous government has caused a humanitarian crisis in indigenous lands, says Brazil’s Environment and Renewable Natural Resources institute Ibama in its announcement. Brazil’s federal police have opened an investigation into the Yanomami genocide.
Ibama and the National Foundation for Indigenous Peoples (Funai) began operations against illegal mining on Monday with the help of national security forces, Ibama said on Wednesday. The issue was reported by, among others, a Brazilian newspaper O Globo and news agencies Reuters and AFP.
A health worker with a Yanomami baby at the Brazilian Air Force Field Hospital in Boa Vista on February 4. Malaria and malnutrition cases among the indigenous population have increased sharply.
Brazil’s national security forces arrived at Boa Vista airport to participate in anti-illegal mining operations.
of Brazil previous president Jair Bolsonaro said in 2017that “where there are lands of indigenous peoples” there are “riches below”, says The New York Times.
According to the Reuters news agency, a total of more than 20,000 miners had occupied the Yanomami reservation in Roraima. Illegal miners have brought diseases and sexual and armed violence.
Conditions on the lands of the Yanomami have deteriorated so much in recent years that Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva led by Brazil’s new government declared a health emergency in the region in January, says the Spanish newspaper El País. It is the largest reserve of indigenous peoples in Brazil, roughly equivalent in size to Portugal.
It is home to approximately 27,000 indigenous people.
The Minister of Health for Indigenous Peoples visited the area Weibe Tapeba stated that the reservation resembled a concentration camp.
Early by Tuesday evening, a helicopter, an airplane, a tracked tractor and support structures had been destroyed in the operations against illegal gold miners. In addition, the authorities confiscated two guns, freezers, generators and Internet antennas, as well as three boats with approximately 5,000 liters of fuel.
Ibama and national security forces have set up a surveillance base on the Uraricoera River to cut off supplies to the mines. Roadblocks have also been installed in the area.
According to news agency EFE, there are many women, children and elderly among the gold diggers fleeing Roraima. An illegal gold miner interviewed by the news agency said that the Yanomami living in the area are dying of hunger, and that the food aid sent by the government ran out the same day it was distributed.
A mining area on the lands of the Yanomami in Roraima.
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