Bolsonaro government tried to hide dimension of Yanomami crisis

For years trying to draw attention to the humanitarian crisis caused by mining in the Yanomami Indigenous Land (TI), the leaders had difficulty in specifying the number of deaths due to illegal activity. The cases were reported by several indigenous leaders, but ignored by former President Jair Bolsonaro. The data released this Saturday (21) shocked the country: due to the invasion of prospectors, lack of medical equipment and medication, at least 570 children died of malnutrition in the last four years, according to the Minister of Indigenous Peoples, Sônia Guajajara, based on according to a survey by the Ministry of Health.

“The Yanomami were greatly affected by lack of assistance, lack of medication and invasions. The situation is chaotic,” Junior Yanomami, president of the District Council for Yanomami and Yek’wana Indigenous Health (Condisi-YY) told DW Brasil, which travels through communities in the vast territory with teams from ministries.

The humanitarian crisis was not unknown to the federal government. During the administration of Jair Bolsonaro, indigenous leaders such as Dario Kopenawa Yanomami, from the Hutukara Associação Yanomami, went to Brasília to expose the situation and ask for the expulsion of the miners.

“They had been talking about the scenario for some time, but they didn’t have the exact data. Access to this information was difficult during the Bolsonaro government,” says Priscilla Oliveira, researcher and activist at Survival International.

In addition to the difficulty of visiting the most remote areas of IT, independent teams who took risks also dealt with the threats of intruders. “It was difficult to calculate this number with a government that had no intention of following up and publishing this data. It was a blackout of the numbers”, adds Oliveira.

For Joenia Wapichana, who assumed leadership of the National Foundation for Indigenous Peoples (Funai), the situation of the Yanomami people, declared a humanitarian crisis, threatens the current generation: “It requires urgent action to prevent more deaths, especially among children.”

On a visit to Roraima before an international engagement, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva pledged to remove the garimpeiros from the Yanomami IL and criticized his predecessor, Bolsonaro.

“If he, instead of making so many motociata, were ashamed and came here once, who knows these people would not be as abandoned as they are”, he declared at a press conference in the capital Boa Vista.

Sonia Guajajara, the first to assume the newly created ministry, also spoke about the inheritance received from the former president. “We also need to hold the previous management accountable for allowing this situation to deteriorate to the point of arriving here and finding adults weighing like children and children in a skin and bone situation.”

Disease and violence brought by the invaders

For Priscilla Oliveira, the current crisis goes beyond the lack of Basic Health Units in the communities, of medicines and medical teams: “It is a consequence of the massive presence of illegal miners.”

Hutukara estimates that currently more than 20,000 invaders are in the territory scouring the bottom of rivers and forests in search of gold. This survey by the indigenous people was treated as “exaggerated” by the Bolsonaro government, as stated by the then vice president, Hamilton Mourão, during a conversation with foreign journalists in which DW participated.

“The activity of prospectors does not only cause an environmental impact, of deforestation, of digging up the soil. There are problems of river contamination with mercury, fish, water used in different ways by the indigenous people. The presence of miners spreads malaria, covid and other diseases”, explains the Survival International activist.

In 2022 alone, 11,530 cases of malaria were registered in the Yanomami Special Indigenous Health District, distributed among 37 centers. The highlight was for cases in the age group of over 50 years old, followed by those from 18 to 49 years old, and from five to 11 years old.

In a letter sent to President Lula in December 2022, Yanomami women narrated the conflicts and violence they experience within the territory demarcated for the exclusive use of the indigenous people.

“The trails of prospectors make malaria grow. Before, when there weren’t so many miners, illnesses were few. In some regions of the Yanomami territory, our children are dying from malaria, malnutrition, pneumonia and even worm infestation.”

According to the women, when they seek medical help at health centers, they are answered with complaints about the lack of medicine, which never arrived, even with the insistence of the authorities.

“This malaria is very strong and there are no drugs to treat it. Bolsonaro’s government ended Brazil’s chloroquine stock and now we suffer from its mismanagement. We don’t want to cry because people die, we don’t want to cry until dawn. We already have many mortuary ashes”, reports the document.

widespread violence

Violent acts spread across the territory. In December, invaders burned down a health post in the Homoxi region, putting the lives of 700 indigenous people at risk. The crime occurred after a Federal Police operation in the region. The medical team working at the post had abandoned the site days before, after rumors that miners were going to attack the unit.

Sexual assaults also raise an even greater concern: “Gold miners harass the girls and others want to pay for marital services. They want to do it that way, but we women don’t want our daughters and granddaughters to be handed over and abused by these people. The garimpeiros entice the young men and their wives. These young people are attracted and become dependent on the few processed foods they receive as payment.”

After Lula’s visit and a delegation of ministers to TI, the Federal Police will start investigating accusations of genocide and environmental crimes, at the request of the Ministry of Justice.

*With information from Isto É

Read more:

Lula goes to Roraima to bring support to the Yanomami indigenous people in a situation of malnutrition

Yanomami indigenous people denounce difficulty in accessing healthcare and the invasion of prospectors

Ombudsman investigates cases of malnutrition and deaths of Yanomami children in the Upper Rio Negro