Senate Plenary.| Photo: Roque de Sá/Agência Senado.

The Senate approved this Tuesday (28) the expansion of the external commission that investigates the crisis in the Yanomami Indigenous Land. With the decision, the collegiate will have eight members instead of five. The enlargement of the commission was a request of senators Eliziane Gama (PSD-MA) and Humberto Costa (PT-PE), who claimed lack of representativeness of defenders of the various sectors involved in the issue, reported Agência Senado.

The senators are part of the committee: Chico Rodrigues (PSB-RR), president of the collegiate; Eliziane Gama (PSD-MA), vice president; Hiran Gonçalves (PP-RR), rapporteur; Humberto Costa (PT-PE); and Mecias de Jesus (Republicanos-RR). Entities that defend the rights of indigenous people asked for the removal of Rodrigues, Hiran and Mecias. According to the associations, the three would have defended mining in the region.

“The majority formed by the three senators from Roraima delegitimizes and distorts the mission of the External Commission due to their explicit involvement in the defense of mining within the Yanomami TI, a criminal activity whose consequences and impacts were evident for the entire Brazilian society”, said the Indigenous Council Missionary (Cimi) in a document sent to the Senate requesting the review of the commission.

In this Tuesday’s session, the rapporteur said he was in favor of the expansion and stated that he never agreed with mining the way it is done on Yanomami lands. “I want to say here that I have never expressed myself in favor of mining in the way that is happening in the state, which deprecates the environment a lot. I have always manifested myself in a very clear way so that we can discuss and create the appropriate legal framework to exploit our riches with the acquiescence of the natural populations and with due compensation”, said Hiran Gonçalves.

The president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), stated that the definition of the new names will be made by the presidency of the House “in the shortest possible time”, after the manifestations of senators interested in composing the collegiate. Damares Alves (Republicanos-DF) and Fabiano Contarato (PT-ES) have already stated their interest in composing the commission.