MPF will investigate State responsibility in the Yanomami crisis

Yanomami crisis

The body will evaluate actions and omissions of public agents

The Federal Public Ministry (MPF) opened, this Monday (30), a civil investigation to investigate the responsibility of Government agents in the humanitarian, health and environmental crisis that affects the Yanomami in Roraima.

In the new survey, the MPF will assess whether actions and omissions by managers and politicians contributed to the current situation in the Yanomami Indigenous Land, the real dimension of the crisis, the socio-environmental causes and impacts and the degree of involvement of each public agent.

For the MPF, the ongoing procedures gather sufficient evidence to hold the Brazilian State accountable. “Such a collection reveals a clear picture of widespread lack of health care, systematic failure to comply with court orders to repress invaders of indigenous territory and repeated actions by state agents able to encourage violations of the life and health of the Yanomami people”, says the document that deals with the initiation of the civil inquiry.

Dozens of MPF procedures already investigate complaints of lack of assistance to the indigenous people of Roraima, in addition to illegal mining, abuse of women and children, among others.

humanitarian crisis

Since January 20, a federal government task force has been operating in the region of the Yanomami Indigenous Land in response to the humanitarian crisis faced by the indigenous people. According to the federal government, more than 30,400 indigenous people live in the area that the Union allocates for the exclusive use of the Yanomami.

Motivated by accusations that the illegal activity of miners is contaminating the rivers that supply the local communities, destroying the forest and affecting the survival conditions of the populations, the federal government sent to the Yanomami Indigenous Land, at the beginning of last week, technicians from the Ministry of Health who found malnourished children and elderly people, many weighing less than the recommended minimum. There were also people with malaria, acute respiratory infections and other illnesses, without receiving any kind of medical assistance.

* With information from Agência Brasil

Read more:

Yanomami crisis: hunger could spread to the AM with the advance of mining in the Amazon

Entourage arrives in Roraima to listen to Yanomami leaders

Lula orders cuts in river and air traffic in the Yanomami area