Government is not acting with the speed required by the Yanomami crisis, says Defensoria – 05/02/2023 – Panel

The Federal Public Defender’s Office sent the government a letter criticizing the delay in sending planes and personnel to help control the Yanomami crisis.

In the document, the DPU asks that responses and concrete measures adopted for logistical-operational reinforcement that increase the effectiveness of actions with the indigenous people be presented by this second (6) day.

The letter, dated last Friday (3), is addressed to ministers Rui Costa (Casa Civil) and Sonia Guajajara (Indigenous Peoples) and to the president of Funai (National Foundation of Indigenous Peoples), Joenia Wapichana.

In it, the Ombudsman recalls that, on January 30, it sent a letter to ministers Flávio Dino (Justice and Public Security) and José Múcio (Defense) asking for an increase in the number of planes, helicopters and logistical support in the Yanomami Indigenous Land.

According to the DPU, the General Coordination of Isolated and Recent Contact Indians would have pointed out logistical difficulties due to limited resources for contracting the hour/flight. Regarding the reinforcement of the team, it signaled with processes for carrying out temporary hiring and the survey of servers for requisition.

“The Ministry of Defense, in turn, informed, in a generic way, the taking of administrative measures for the emergency response to the demands”, indicates the letter. The body also said that there is a need for greater articulation with other bodies to renovate a landing strip that is unable to receive large aircraft, making it difficult to transport indigenous people in more debilitated health situations.”

“In light of this, the assessment made by the DPU is that the Federal Government, although it has finally taken action to reduce the serious damage to the Yanomami and Ye’kwana people as a result of the structural omission of the previous administration, has not been adopting measures with the speed that the conjuncture needs.”

The Ombudsman requests priority for the demands of the previous letter “so that more indigenous lives are not put at risk, that is, so that the regrettable and shocking scenes that we witnessed two weeks ago are not repeated in the next ones.”

“Considering the extreme urgency that the case requires, it is requested that responses be forwarded and concrete measures adopted for logistical-operational and personnel reinforcement to make actions with the Yanomami and Ye’kwana indigenous people more effective, until next Monday -feira (6)”, concludes the document.

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