Malnutrition of the Yanomami was the target of CPI in the Lula government

After the federal government declared a state of emergency to combat the lack of health care that affects the indigenous Yanomami in the state of Roraima, a series of criticisms were directed at the management of former President Jair Bolsonaro. wanted by People’s Gazetteformer members of Funai and Sesai attribute the fact that they were unable to resolve the humanitarian crisis situation, which has existed for decades, to the difficulties in accessing the villages, the circumstances of these specific tribes and also the arrival of other Yanomami from from Venezuela.

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Denunciations and records of cases of malnutrition and contagious diseases in villages go back more than 30 years, according to reports published by various NGOs, such as the Instituto Socioambiental (ISA), and compiled by former Funai employees. In fact, a Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI) on Malnutrition of Indigenous Children was installed in 2007, in the Chamber of Deputies, to investigate the deaths of indigenous children due to malnutrition in the country.

Last Saturday (21), while visiting the Yanomami territory, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva accused the Bolsonaro government of crimes against indigenous peoples. “More than a humanitarian crisis, what I saw in Roraima was a genocide. A premeditated crime against the Yanomami, committed by a government insensitive to the suffering of the Brazilian people,” said Lula.

The Ministry of Indigenous Peoples reported that 99 children aged 1 to 4 died, in 2022 alone, within the Yanomami tribe. Last year, according to the ministry, there were still 11,530 cases of malaria reported in the territory, and it is estimated that in the last four years at least 570 children were killed by contamination by mercury, malnutrition and hunger, an increase of 29% in relation to to the previous period.

The PT government also attributed the humanitarian crisis in the villages to the “overwhelming advance” of mining in recent years, which would be related to the Bolsonaro government’s policy. Data from the “Yanomami under attack” report, prepared by indigenous associations and published by the Instituto Socioambiental (ISA), recorded a 46% jump in illegal mining in the territory between 2020 and 2021.

In a note released this Monday (23), the Indigenous Missionary Council (Cimi) reported that the current government has witnessed the impacts that illegal mining and the abandonment of health care by the State have caused to the Yanomami people. “It is not a situation revealed now; it has been denounced numerous times by indigenous organizations and allies. Between November 2018 and December 2022, there were up to six judicial decisions, in the various instances of the Judiciary, condemning the State to take the necessary urgent measures” , explained the board.

According to Cimi, “the problem of hunger among the Indians began when they were taken from their original territories for the expansion of agriculture on large estates. This disrupted the sharing economy, the basis of indigenous villages, and left them with no land on which to produce food.” .

After the accusations, both the former president and the former minister of Human Rights Damares Alves spoke about the case. Bolsonaro classified the complaint as a “farce of the left”, said that care for indigenous health was one of the priorities of his government and listed actions provided to indigenous peoples during his mandate.

Former minister Damares, on the other hand, stated that she follows with sadness the images that are being released about the Yanomami, but that there was no omission by her ministry, nor by other areas of the government. She also said that malnutrition among indigenous children is a “historical dilemma aggravated by the isolation imposed by the pandemic” and that there were also deaths of indigenous people due to malnutrition in PT administrations.

Negligence of previous actions

The failure of public policies to resolve the poverty of the Yanomami is not just the result of the last administration. Since 1991, the “chaotic situation” of the Yanomami has been documented by the Instituto Socioambiental (ISA). In the ISA Collection, there is a “chronology of the genocide” faced in the territories of this ethnic group, which points to “a health situation in a serious state with the Yanomami dying of malaria, malnutrition and associated diseases”.

In 1999, the infant mortality rate among the Yanomami was also alarming: 141 deaths per thousand people, ten times higher than the numbers registered in groups assisted by the Pastoral da Criança, which is 13.7 deaths per thousand.

The sluggishness and disarticulation of the public power in controlling the invasion of miners and indigenous health were also some of the critical points of the last administrations pointed out by the ISA. In 2000, the Federal Police made a complaint saying that there was a lack of people and money for the inspection process in the indigenous reserves.

A study published in Deutsche Welle, in 2018, denounced an “epidemic of mining in the Amazon”. According to the survey, Venezuela was the country where the situation was most serious, with 1,899 illegal mines. Brazil appeared in second place in the ranking, with 453, being 321 points, and 132 areas.

In 2004, ISA highlighted the “regression in the indigenous health care policy” and recalled “the frustrations of the indigenous peoples in Lula’s first government”. The high rate of malnutrition was also heavily criticized in previous governments.

In 2007, the CPI on Indigenous Malnutrition was installed in the Chamber of Deputies, which investigated the deaths of indigenous children from malnutrition during the period 2005-2007. In one of the hearings held in 2008, it was mentioned that “the Yanomami were dying of malaria, suffering from eye complications from onchocerciasis, from toxoplasmosis”, but they were not receiving due attention. Difficulties in accessing villages to provide assistance were also pointed out.

The CPI report, prepared by former deputy Vicentinho Alves (PR-TO), recommended the extinction of agreements with non-governmental organizations to deal with indigenous health and the strengthening of the National Health Foundation (Funasa) and Funai. According to the report, there was a “lack of control” in indigenous health and an “ineffective internal control” of the foundation.

Access difficulties make Indigenous health precarious

Deputy-elect Sílvia Waiãpi (PL-AP), who was Secretary of Indigenous Health in the first year of the Bolsonaro government until early 2020, said that the “chaotic situation” in the Yanomami tribes is a cause for concern, but stressed that “associating this problem with the Bolsonaro government is the only way to hide the omission of past governments”.

The deputy said that she closely followed the reality of care for indigenous people in health centers, and suffered threats for messing with “powerful people who used contracts at the end in the area of ​​health to divert public money”. In addition to corruption, she pointed out that the difficulty in accessing the villages also compromises service and assistance to the Indians.

In addition to the lack of equipment, doctors, nurses, medicines, Sílvia mentioned that the landing strips for emergencies in the villages had never been homologated, which made it difficult to carry out humanitarian actions and the emergency removal of patients.

“The Bolsonaro government, to guarantee health care, approved the landing strips to improve access to these regions and to provide care to indigenous peoples. This was something that no other government has done”, explained the parliamentarian.

According to the National Civil Aviation Agency (Anac), 135 runways in indigenous areas are registered. Of these, however, 112 have restrictions on landings and takeoffs because they do not have a Basic Aerodrome Protection Plan that indicates the topographic conditions of the runway to prevent aircraft from colliding with trees or hills. Sesai technicians guarantee that the other 74 tracks do not even have registration and therefore are not mentioned by Anac.

Another concern pointed out by the deputy was in relation to the close border with Venezuela in the territory of the Yanomami, which facilitates the entry of indigenous Venezuelans who come to Brazil in search of health care and food.

“At the health center in Auaris, in the Yanomami region, we identified that many indigenous people came from Venezuelan territory in search of food and assistance. Brazil is the only country with a policy of assistance to indigenous peoples. At the time, I asked to raise all the names and flows of Venezuelan indigenous people who went to the post to ask for help,” he said.

The report of the names of the patients seen was not made public on the internet. According to the deputy, the files and reports can be found at the Auari service center in the Army battalion.

The deputy also criticized “segregation” and NGOs that provide assistance to indigenous peoples. According to Sílvia, “there are many NGOs in that place that exploit one of the few foodstuffs” that the Yanomami have and hinder the growth and leadership of the villages.

“We have to know how the money that goes to the NGOs is being used, nothing has changed, on the contrary, just conflict after conflict, like this humanitarian problem of the Yanomami. Segregation condemns peoples. We segregate indigenous people and prevent access and contact with these people,” he said.

Bolsonaro Management

In the Bolsonaro administration, public policies aimed at indigenous people were the responsibility of the Special Secretariat for Indigenous Health (Sesai), linked to the Ministry of Health. The National Indian Foundation (Funai) had the role of monitoring indigenous health care actions and services, but the provision and execution of the work were the responsibility of Sesai.

Funai sought to provide transparency to what was being done by the Bolsonaro government in the Yanomami villages in Roraima. According to information from Funai, until October last year, more than 22 tons of food were delivered to the Yanomami and in the pandemic alone, the number of baskets exceeded more than 1 million. The government’s action included indigenous communities in the regions of Parima, Kayanaú, Parafuri, Xitei, Hakoma, Homoxi, Haxiu and Surucucu.

A final survey released by Funai at the end of last year, showed that the budget for inspection of indigenous lands grew 151% over 3 years, deforestation plummeted 26.79% in the period and investment in the protection of isolated indigenous peoples and of recent contact more which tripled.

Throughout 2021 and 2022, Funai participated in inter-institutional articulations to monitor the Emergency Action Plan to combat malaria, child malnutrition and infant mortality. Planning involved short, medium and long-term actions related to food insecurity, together with the Special Secretariat for Indigenous Health and the Ministry of Citizenship, with a special focus on combating malnutrition.

On the impact of gold mining on the lives of the Yanomami, the former president of Funai, Marcelo Xavier, presented a series of actions that were taken during the Bolsonaro government to contain land grabbing and even Army operations, such as Curare 11, to combat gold mining. illegal. One of the actions indicated by Xavier was the reopening of the ethno-environmental protection bases (Bape) of the Indigenous Land (TI) in 2019, after four years closed, which collaborated in the fight against the immense illegal mining.

According to Funai, the devastating exploitation of minerals, in addition to contaminating indigenous peoples with mercury, silting up and polluting rivers and destroying part of the forest, brought strong interference in the way of life of communities, causing social disorganization, transmitting diseases and placing the vulnerable population.

From 2019 to 2021, Funai carried out more than 1,200 actions and a 22.75% reduction in deforestation in Indigenous Lands in the Legal Amazon was verified. In June of last year, Venezuelan soldiers were arrested in Yanomami territory with more than 30kg of mercury, which would be sold in an illegal mining area. “Funai maintained an intense activity in the repression of crimes that occur in that region, in an articulated and integrated way”, said Xavier.

According to the “Yanomami Report – Funai 2022”, there are 27,000 indigenous people of this ethnic group in Roraima, distributed in about 360 communities, and it is estimated that around 10,000 Yanomami live in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.