Yanomami land has a return to mining and malnutrition – 01/13/2024 – Daily life

Easily seen by anyone crossing the skies of Yanomami territory, in Roraima, a landing and take-off strip suspected of serving illegal mining houses nine small planes, arranged side by side, very close to illegal gold exploration in the largest indigenous land in the world. Brazil. The region borders Venezuela, and the coordinates point to the presence of the runway 5 km into the neighboring country.

In the “Rangel mining”, in Brazilian territory, vessels with miners travel without discomfort through the dirty and muddy waters of the Couto Magalhães River. It’s late afternoon on Wednesday (10), and the boats also circulate calmly along the Mucajaí River, which is filthy.

Garimpos and mining scars seem to swallow longhouses, small villages and an airstrip that once served indigenous health, in the regions of Homoxi and Xitei. Rivers, like the Uraricoera, have once again acquired the mushy appearance that is characteristic of predatory and illegal gold exploration.

Everything is seen from above, from the window of one of the three small planes used by the delegation of Lula (PT) government ministers visiting the Auaris region, the furthest from Yanomami land, on the border with Venezuela. A Sheet accompanied the visit.

Mining has resumed in strategic points across the territory. A 20-minute flight from the Army’s PEF (Special Border Platoon) in Auaris, where the ministers’ delegation planes landed, two strategic points for the logistics of illegal gold are in full operation.

Maurício Ye’kwana, director of the Hutukara Yanomami Association, gave a detailed report to ministers Sônia Guajajara (Indigenous Peoples), Marina Silva (Environment and Climate Change) and Silvio Almeida (Human Rights), inside the central space of the Fuduuwaadunha village, of the Ye’kwanas, who are also in Yanomami land.

“There is a large flow of planes and helicopters at the two logistical points. There are 17 aircraft, which feed mines in Parima, Homoxi, Xitei”, said Maurício. Davi Kopenawa, who heads Hutukara, summed up the recovery of mining activity in his territory in this way, in a tone of irritation when addressing the ministers: “They are like termites. Half of them left. The criminals stayed.”

In the case of the landing strip with nine planes, the Brazilian government even planned to destroy the aircraft, but reportedly found that the runway is on the Venezuelan side.

The reactivation of mining is fueling the humanitarian crisis for the Yanomami, impacting access to food and successive outbreaks of malaria in the territory. The malnutrition of Yanomami children is as visible as the exploitation of gold, and are directly proportional.

Auaris is, today, one of the main focuses of the health crisis. Access to communities is via two-hour flights, which makes assistance and removal difficult; mining has been spreading to the region, without repression by inspection, security bodies and the Armed Forces; there is co-optation of adult indigenous people, which impacts production in the fields.

It is common for children to be malnourished and suffer from malaria at the same time, in addition to the high incidence of opportunistic hunger diseases: pneumonia, diarrhea, anemia, worms.

Health professionals believe that all Yanomami in the Auaris region will have had malaria throughout 2023. There are 4,000 indigenous people. Until November, there were 6,917 positive cases reported by the health base, according to data from the Yanomami COE (Emergency Operation Center), linked to the Ministry of Health. In no other region was there as much malaria as there.

In the early afternoon of last Wednesday, seven children were hospitalized at the base center with malnutrition – four severe cases and three moderate cases.

The children and their mothers stay in a shed where there is a hammock. Food supplementation by syringe is administered to patients, in an attempt to gain weight by the children, in order to avoid air transport to the Children’s Hospital in Boa Vista. In 2023, there were more than a thousand visits to the health unit.

A child who was admitted to the health unit in Auaris, and who was between 12 and 13 years old, weighed 10 kg. The serious cases were among Sanumá indigenous people, a Yanomami subgroup present mainly in Auaris.

Health professionals who care for these patients say that families have lost the habit of farming. They depend on basic food baskets distributed by Funai (National Foundation for Indigenous Peoples).

In the baskets, there is rice, flour, milk, beef jerky, canned sardines, meat paçoca and a corn-based processed product, according to indigenous health agents. The diet of the Sanumás, before their dependence on baskets, included beyju, bananas, fish and meat from wild pork, deer and monkey. According to a health agent, today, there is almost no hunting or fishing.

At Casai (Indigenous Health Home) Yanomami, in Boa Vista, one of the main flows of indigenous people comes from the Auaris region. The space should only be a reception and transit home, but it provides medical care and hospitalizations.

When President Lula (PT) went to Boa Vista to announce health emergency measures, in the first month of his third term, he addressed Casai, and stated that the overcrowding of the place was unacceptable. A health emergency was declared in Yanomami land on January 20, 2023.

The space still has more people than existing vacancies. As of Tuesday (9), there were 276 patients and 310 companions, for a total of 586 indigenous people. Casai’s capacity is 442 networks and 16 beds. At the height of the humanitarian crisis, almost 900 Yanomami stayed in Casai, some of them for months, without returning to their traditional territory.

Sheds are structured to house the indigenous people, divided by regions. The one in Auaris was one of the most crowded on Tuesday, when the reporter visited the place.

“The mining returned with a vengeance and, with that, malaria returned with a vengeance”, says gynecologist Ana Paula Pina, who works at the Yanomami DSEI (Special Indigenous Health District). “There are chronically malnourished mothers. And the majority of hospitalizations are malnourished children with malaria.”

At the base center in Auaris, health professionals find it difficult to administer dietary supplements in cases of malnutrition. Even so, the seven children with malnutrition would not need to be transferred to Boa Vista, according to the diagnosis made on the day of the ministers’ visit.

It is common for indigenous people on the Venezuelan side to seek out the health unit in Auaris, mainly because of malaria, according to reports from leaders in the region. The flow is 80 to 100 indigenous people, according to the leaders.

“We are very aware that [a crise] It’s far from over, it’s far from freeing the territory”, said minister Sônia Guajajara, at the meeting held with leaders in Auaris. “We know that there are invaders, that what remains is the criminal part.”

Marina Silva stated that the government wants “transparency and reality”, and not “self-deception”. “The president’s message is to resolve the situation.” Silvio Almeida said something similar: “We are fully aware that, despite the work, it was still not enough.”

On Tuesday, after a ministerial meeting called by the president, the federal government announced the presence of a “government house” in Roraima to deal with actions in Yanomami land and the installation of three surveillance bases in the territory, with security forces such as PF ( Federal Police) and Armed Forces. The expected expenses are R$1.2 billion.

Lula seemed uncomfortable with the health data. The COE’s most recent report shows that 308 Yanomami – or indigenous people from other subgroups in the region – died in 2023. The data includes records until November 30. More than half of the deaths were children up to 4 years old. Among the main causes of deaths are pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria and malnutrition.

Mining alerts point to an 80% reduction throughout the year, but satellite images can camouflage the return of invaders to areas that were already open. And this has been happening, according to inspection agents.

These agents estimate that around 3,000 invaders remain on indigenous land, almost a year after the start of deintrusion actions – the removal of non-indigenous people. There were around 20 thousand at the height of the crisis, encouraged by the government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL).

With the greater presence of health teams in the region, the numbers are closer to reality than those compiled during the Bolsonaro government, when there was significant underreporting. But teams continue without entering communities closer to mining sites, due to risks to health work.

In the Kayanaú region, the health center remains closed. Mining intensified in the area. The Brazilian government does not know the fate and health conditions of more than 300 Yanomami who lived in five villages in the region.