Lula’s government is considering launching an investigation for “genocide” by Bolsonaro’s previous cabinet, since malnutrition and disease have decimated an ethnic group under national protection in a few years
Sinning by omission has cost the Brazilian Government the death of more than 500 indigenous minors in the last four years. This is attested by the evidence gathered by President Lula da Silva’s cabinet on the ravages caused by hunger and disease in the Yanomami community, despite being covered by a national protection plan. All of them could serve the new Executive to denounce the previous president, Jair Bolsonaro, for a case of “genocide”.
Lula declared this Wednesday a state of health emergency of “national importance” in the region occupied by this ethnic group. A coordination committee has also been created to address the crisis, which will speed up the hiring of doctors in the border town of Roraima, adjacent to Venezuelan territory, where a health service was supposed to already exist because it was located in territory protected by the nation.
The lack of attention and the exploitation of natural resources in this strip of the north of the country (especially mercury, which has contaminated a good part of the region) have caused almost 30,000 members of the Yanomami to be at risk. An investigation is looking for the political leaders who did not execute the corresponding assistance plan to avoid malnutrition and curable diseases that plague the community. More than a thousand people have already suffered serious health crises.
Organizations that defend indigenous peoples had denounced the humanitarian drama that has been going on in the area for three years. But only since last week, when the president and his cabinet visited the territory, has Brazil known the full extent of the health and social emergency suffered by its inhabitants. At least 570 children have died from mercury contamination, malnutrition and hunger. Of them, 99 died last year.
The Ministry of Indigenous Peoples estimates that all these minors, between the ages of one and five, lost their lives due to respiratory and digestive problems as a result of the contamination caused by the advance of illegal mining in the region. The waste and the use of toxic products affect the rivers and destroy the jungle. They also suffer from malaria. Lula’s government now wants to speed up the construction of health centers, since, due to its wooded conditions, only Air Force health teams have arrived at the site.
The Federal Police has begun the investigation to designate those responsible for the “mismanagement” of the problems of the largest ancestral reserve, whose territory occupies nearly 10 million hectares. The Minister of Justice, Flávio Dino, heads the legal process to clarify the actions and omissions that may have been committed by officials of the former Executive, as well as the existence of environmental crimes and diversion of public resources.
Complaints
During Bolsonaro’s tenure, complaints about the situation of this community were considered “a farce on the left.” His cabinet cut the budget of departments that combat environmental crimes and defended the exploitation of minerals and timber on indigenous reserves.
The former president had previously been linked to accusations of genocide. Several indigenous peoples filed a complaint for crimes against humanity in 2019 and in 2021 denounced the damage caused by Bolsonaro’s policies. «What we lived with him was an explicit refusal to demarcate new lands. At the same time, bills, decrees, and ordinances tried to legalize illegal activities in indigenous territories, which left us without legal protection,” denounced Luiz Eloy Terena, representative of the native population at the time.
Brazil has about 850,000 indigenous people spread over 300 communities. The most mistreated groups have been the Munduruki people, hit by invasions of their territory and contamination; the Yanomami whose land has been destroyed by mining; the Tikuna and Guarani-Mbya, decimated by disease; and finally the Kaingang and Guarani Kaiowá, targets of attacks and murders repeatedly to deprive them of their properties.
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