Closure of airspace in Terra Yanomami will be brought forward to April 6

The Ministries of Justice and Defense decided to bring forward to April 6 the closing of the airspace over Yanomami Land in Roraima, which was released at the beginning of the month for prospectors to leave. The decision was taken at a meeting this Thursday (23) with ministers Flávio Dino and José Múcio Monteiro.

The closure will take place a month earlier than initially planned, and new operations will follow to combat illegal mining in the region. The decision was taken hours after the federal base in the village of Palimiú was attacked by gunfire during the early hours of the morning.

“We have identified areas where there is support for these illegal operations, and these will be targeted for operations in the coming days, so we are updating the planning. What we are saying is that Defense and Justice, together, will expand these actions now in March and, certainly, until that scheduled date [6 de abril] we will have an end to this illegal activity”, said Minister Flávio Dino.

According to him, there are still illegal flights in the region – from 30 to about two a day. The number of garimpeiros also decreased from an estimated 15,000 to less than a thousand.

According to the Ministry of Justice, in addition to disrupting the prospects, operations arrested people involved in clandestine companies, identified more criminals and advanced in mapping the destination of illegal gold, which should be expanded in the next stage.

“Phase one, which was the persuasion phase, was completed, we took a break. As there are still two or three areas in which people are insisting, we will, in this new phase, close air traffic and carry out arrests and seizures”, highlighted Dino. At least 11 tons of cassiterite, 37 rafts, two aircraft, a vessel, five engines and three tents have already been seized by Operation Yanomami.

Two cassiterite extraction machines, four boats, eight engines, 1,100 liters of gasoline, half a ton of food and items such as cell phones, batteries and a chainsaw were also found.