Government promises to expel mining from more indigenous lands – 01/08/2024 – Environment

Indigenous lands where mining surrounded villages, and for which there were no plans to remove invaders during the first year of the Lula (PT) government, were included in a list of ten priority territories and a new operational plan for deintrusions — from expulsion of non-indigenous people—will be presented to the STF (Supreme Federal Court).

This is what the MPI (Ministry of Indigenous Peoples) stated in a note sent to Sheet, in response to questions from the report about the lack of deintrusion actions in the territories. The new plan is scheduled for this Tuesday (9), the deadline for submitting the document, according to the STF decision.

In the series of reports “Siege of villages”, published throughout 2023, the Sheet showed the siege of illegal gold mining in central communities in the Kayapó and Munduruku Indigenous Lands, in Pará, and Sararé, in Mato Grosso.

The territories were the most invaded in 2023 for illegal gold exploration, with the co-optation of indigenous people, the disruption of villages, the intensification of diseases such as malaria and mercury contamination, with a direct impact on the health of children, young people and adults.

Even so, the Lula government did not promote the extermination of invaders, despite the existence of a decision by the STF ordering the withdrawal of miners from territories in Pará. Throughout the year, specific inspection and destruction actions were carried out in the mining logistics, insufficient to stop the expansion of invasions.

The federal government focused on the expulsions of four territories: Yanomami, in Roraima, where indigenous people are experiencing a humanitarian crisis due to the invasion of more than 20,000 miners by 2022, with an explosion in cases of malnutrition; Apyterewa, the most deforested in the country, and Trincheira Bacajá, in Pará; and Alto Rio Guamá, also in Pará.

In the case of Yanomami land, the Lula government “drastically” reduced actions to remove the invaders, as pointed out by the MPF (Federal Public Ministry) in Roraima. There is a return of miners in strategic points and persistence of outbreaks of malaria and diseases associated with hunger, such as malnutrition, diarrhea and pneumonia.

From January to November 2023, 308 Yanomami died in the region. More than half of the deaths were children up to 4 years old, according to a report from the Yanomami COE (Emergency Operation Center), linked to the Ministry of Health. Among the main causes of deaths are pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria and malnutrition.

New operational plan

On November 9, Minister Luís Roberto Barroso, president of the STF, ordered that MPI, the Ministry of Justice and Public Security and the Ministry of Defense, under the coordination of the General Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic, present within 60 days a new plan to deintrusion of seven indigenous lands.

This plan needs to be implemented in 12 months, according to the STF minister. Barroso is the rapporteur of an action that calls for the removal of invaders in the Kayapó, Munduruku, Yanomami, Trincheira Bacajá, Karipuna, Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau and Arariboia Indigenous Lands. There have already been previous decisions ordering the disintrusion.

According to the MPI, the new operational plan will be delivered on the 9th in compliance with the court decision.

“The MPI submits quarterly reports to the Judiciary with the results of the actions, including the difficulties faced”, stated the ministry. “Recently, the STF determined new steps to fill these gaps, which are already being addressed at the ministerial level.”

A decree by President Lula, dated September 12, 2023, created the Interministerial Committee for the Disintrusion of Indigenous Lands. The committee works within the scope of the MPI and now has the participation of the General Secretariat of the Presidency, which coordinates, for example, the deintrusion of the Apyterewa and Trincheira Bacajá lands.

“The committee developed a methodology of criteria for deintrusion and decisions are taken collectively by representatives from different ministries,” said the MPI. “These hot lands are in the top ten.” The ministry did not provide the order of priorities or the complete list of territories with planned actions because it considers the data to be confidential preparatory acts for operations.

Among the criteria taken into account to define priorities and emergencies, according to the ministry, are the presence of isolated or recently contacted peoples, food insecurity, health emergencies and potential internal conflict between indigenous people.

The option for the initial disintrusion of Apyterewa and Trincheira Bacajá also took into account logistical issues, according to the MPI.

The General Secretariat of the Presidency said, in a note, that it works on disintrusions because there is a need for dialogue with civil society, a responsibility of the department. “Within the scope of the federal government, disintrusion actions are planned, coordinated and operationalized by the interministerial committee”, he stated.

Series of reports

The first chapter of “Siege of villages”, in June, showed the reality of two villages in the Kayapó Indigenous Land that are surrounded by illegal mining. The exploration came very close to the Gorotire and Turedjam communities. The entry of excavators and trucks only occurs upon payment of fees to indigenous groups.

The Kayapó land is the one with the most mining in Brazil, taking into account the extent of the areas open for illegal gold exploration in a demarcated territory.

In the second chapter, published in October, the report showed that mining disorganizes communities in the Munduruku Indigenous Land. The invasions generate internal conflicts, swallow up village fields, muddy the rivers, dump mercury in the water and make indigenous people sick, with the spread of malaria and diarrhea.

The most serious, however, is the increase in cases of children and women with neurological diseases, which may be linked to mercury poisoning. Munduruku boys and girls have severe mental retardation and developmental delay, a condition that may be associated with metal contamination of their mothers and that needs investigation, according to health professionals.

The third chapter of the series was broadcast in December and showed that illegal mining not only surrounds villages in a small Nambikwara territory in Mato Grosso, but also the Funai (National Foundation for Indigenous Peoples) surveillance post, reopened in the Sararé Indigenous Land two years ago.

Sararé land was the second territory with the most mining alerts in 2023. Around 2,000 invaders operate every day in mines that are true invasions, with restaurants, brothels, shacks and camps.

There, illegal mining involves forms of devastation not seen in other invaded territories. In addition to hydraulic excavators and dredgers, miners use explosives to open tunnels in Serra da Borda and motor mills to mine blocks of stone detached from the mountains. The Serra da Borda village is one of those surrounded by invaders.