Yanomamis are exploited in piaçaba – 05/13/2023 – Market

The extraction of piassava in the region of the middle Rio Negro, through a rudimentary model of workers’ indebtedness, includes the exploitation of Yanomami who live in villages of the indigenous land located on the side of the Amazon.

The Yanomami land is the largest in Brazil. The territory has 9.6 million hectares, equivalent to 16 areas the size of Brasília, and extends across Roraima and Amazonas.

On the Roraima side, where 17,000 Yanomamis live, the indigenous people are experiencing a humanitarian crisis.

The advance of illegal mining and 20,000 invaders, encouraged by the Jair Bolsonaro government (2018-2022), caused an explosion in cases of malaria and diseases associated with hunger, such as severe malnutrition, acute diarrhea and pneumonia. On January 20, the Lula government (PT) declared a health emergency in the territory.

The other side of the indigenous land, in Amazonas, is less populated: there are 10,300 Yanomami. Some of them have been going through a hidden exploitation process, with no sign of a reaction from the federal government.

The Funai (National Foundation of Indigenous Peoples) blackout in the region –started in 2018 during the Michel Temer (MDB) government, worsened in the Bolsonaro years and maintained in the first months of Lula’s administration– resulted in an increase in the presence of indigenous people in extraction piaçaba, the fiber of a palm tree still widely used in the manufacture of brooms.

The report of Sheet he went to the region of Barcelos (AM), traveled for four days along the Negro and Padauiri rivers (tributary of the Negro) and found out that Yanomamis were working in this activity. There are indications of removal of fiber from within the demarcated territory by people who do not live in the area.

The indigenous people make long journeys to communities along the Padauiri River, outside the demarcated area, on trips that last three days in boats with low-powered engines – the “rabetinhas”.

The most frequent destination is the Nova Jerusalem community, which emerged 25 years ago, around a piaçaba warehouse. Today, 20 families live in Nova Jerusalem, including Baré indigenous people and descendants of rubber soldiers – the Northeasterners taken to the depths of the Amazon to work in rubber plantations.

The community school, in a wooden structure, is falling apart. There is only teaching up to the fourth year of the fundamental stage. There is no health post. There is no antivenom, nor chloroquine for malaria. Power comes from a diesel generator, scheduled for generation.

Debt for flour, biscuit and fuel

The Yanomami travel in search of basic supplies –such as flour and biscuits– and fuel, necessary for work extracting piassaba over the course of weeks. These supplies are marketed by the so-called bosses —people who have been in this business for decades, who profit from the trimming and sale of piaçaba— and patrõezinhos —poor residents of the communities—, installed along the tributaries of the Rio Negro.

Payment for the products is made in piassava rolls, and debts are generated with the bosses. It is a fixed model, applied to anyone who makes a living from extracting Amazonian fiber. It had few variations over time, and was inherited from the rubber exploitation in the 19th and 20th centuries.

In addition to long journeys, aviamento (the name given to this model of economic exploitation) and indebtedness, the Yanomami create a relationship of dependency with the communities, including working together with indigenous peoples of other ethnic groups –especially the barés– and with non-natives. indigenous people in piaçabais.

The report detected evidence that part of the piaçaba extracted and destined for bosses in the communities, which go to Barcelos, Manaus and other states, comes from the Yanomami Land.

To reach Nova Jerusalem, it takes almost two days in an engine with medium power. The small communities along the way depend on piaçaba income. The rolls, or toros, as they are called by the locals, can be seen at the entrance to each of these places. They stay there waiting for the ferry operated by one of the bosses who buy the product.

A log weighs between 40 and 50 kg. The price per kg of piassava varies a lot. The report, throughout the communities on the Padauiri River, heard reports of R$ 2.40, R$ 2.80, R$ 3.20, R$ 3.80, R$ 4. The quality of the fiber determines the price .

The Tapera community, where Barés and Tukanos live, is one of the warehouses for piaçaba. It is located at the beginning of the Padauiri River, and is used by one of the bosses of piaçaba, Antônio Lacerda, Tonico, 67, for the accumulation of logs. This facilitates ferry transport to Manaus.

In Tapera, there is already a flow of Yanomami. Many of them arrive in Barcelos to withdraw benefits such as Bolsa Família and pensions.

Tonico has a fixed point for flights in Nova Jerusalem, further up the Padauiri River. This is the community with the most intense flow of Yanomami piaçabeiros. They spend days there. Many of the residents express discomfort with the presence of indigenous people.

“The Yanomami began to descend as soon as the community came into being. I was even afraid of the Indians”, says Aldenora Ferreira, 68, Antonino’s wife, who is also a pioneer in Nova Jerusalem. “They come from their huts looking for food.”

The indebtedness of indigenous people to bosses and little bosses is reported by residents of the community. It is common for the Yanomami to spend a month in piassava plantation areas and return with 10 to 15 logs of the fiber, insufficient to pay for groceries.

In a wooden shed, full of various supplies, Tonico says he sells 30 tons of piassava per month.

For other indigenous people, balances are generated between the cost of groceries and fuel and the value of piaçaba delivered, with payment of the difference in cash, according to Tonico. For the Yanomami, the logic is different, says the boss.

“The Yanomami earns R$2,000 in credit, for example, but comes back with a brush for R$600. He gets into debt, but doesn’t pay it back,” says Tonico. “I financed 14 Yanomami groups. I lost between R$80,000 and R$90,000. I don’t finance anymore.”

The indigenous people, however, continue to buy supplies from Tonico, as the report found. Some groups are linked to poor patrons.

The representative of another former boss, Luiz Cláudio, known as Carioca, still works in the community. He has a piassava shed in Barcelos. The report did not locate him in the city, nor the official who represents him.

Indigenous people have little fluency in Portuguese and difficulty understanding system prices

Newly contacted indigenous people, the Yanomami have little fluency in the Portuguese language and difficulty understanding the prices charged for supplies – both for the groceries purchased and per kilogram of piassaba.

There is still difficulty in interacting with residents of the communities and little or no organization around leaders along the journeys made up and down the river.

The groups that pass through Nova Jerusalem, for example, are made up mainly of young Yanomami. A significant portion appears to be teenagers.

In communities, it is common for other indigenous and non-indigenous people to refer to the Yanomami as “uncivilized”, “lazy”, “thieves”. Or simply as “indigenous”. The others are “Brazilians”.

Work routine may be associated with Chagas disease

The routine in piaçabais may be the cause of the incidence of Chagas disease among Yanomamis and among residents of Padauiri communities.

The Yanomami branch of the DSEI (Special Indigenous Health District) in Barcelos detected cases of Chagas disease in two Yanomami adolescents in 2022, one aged 14 and the other aged 16. They are piassava makers and arrived in the city after passing through Nova Jerusalem, according to DSEI technicians. In 2021, a case of the disease was detected in a Yanomami man in his 50s.

Researches show that, among the vectors of the disease, there is a kissing bug incident on the collected fibers. Not long ago, a medical team detected six cases of Chagas disease in Nova Jerusalem.

Antonino “Pitera”, 71, is one of those who discovered he had the disease. He is the son of a rubber soldier from Maranhão and a pioneer in the community.

“There are a lot of people with Chagas disease. People say it’s because of piassava ‘louse'”, says Antonino. “Sometimes, in a ‘placement’ [acampamento na mata para extração da fibra]kill 20 to 30 ‘lice’ in one night.”

A 2011 report already pointed to indigenous indebtedness

A report by Asiba (Indigenous Association of Barcelos) and FOIRN (Federation of Indigenous Organizations of Rio Negro) to the MPT (Ministry of Labor) in 2011 already mentioned the indebtedness of indigenous peoples with bosses. The report named Tonico and Carioca as “owners of igarapés” in the region.

Another note made, in the same document, was about the performance of Coopiaçamarin (Cooperativa de Piaçabeiros do Alto e Médio Rio Negro). The cooperative was led by bosses, not piassaba extraction workers. And so it remains. The president is a boss, Seder Katz Nara, who works with the supply and purchase of the fiber.

He says that he no longer does direct negotiations with the Yanomami and that all the work today is within the scope of the cooperative. There are 280 members and 2,000 piassava makers in the region, according to Seder. “Indigenous people are indebted. In the past, we negotiated directly with them, but my company closed.”

The exploitation of the Yanomami in piaçaba also occurs in two other tributaries of the Negro river, the Aracá and Preto rivers. The most intense flow is in the Padauiri, more specifically in the course of the Tabaco igarapé.

The report accompanied the transshipment of piassaba rolls in a waterfall in Tabaco, a necessary action due to the impossibility of navigating through the waterfall. In the groups that went down with fiber cargo, there were no Yanomamis. The piaçabeiros said they could sail for hours, heading for New Jerusalem. From there to the edge of Yanomami land, it’s 6 km in a straight line.

Funai has already acted in the intermediation and purchase of piassava from the Yanomami, including the existence of food canteens, which prevented the advance of middlemen. There are references in documents to this intermediation until 2011.

In 2018, there was the dismantling of a Funai CTL (local technical coordination) that operated in Barcelos to serve the Yanomami, according to José Ribamar Caldas Filho, an indigenist technician who works at the agency in the city. The regional coordination regarding Yanomami land is located in Boa Vista (RR).

Ribamar is a substitute coordinator. He spends 15 days in the municipality and returns to São Gabriel da Cachoeira (AM), where he works.

Funai in Barcelos has only one permanent employee and one outsourced. Inspections in the piaçabais region are practically non-existent, both due to the dismantling of personnel and the fact that the territory where the fiber is exploited –called Terra Indígena Aracá-Padauiri, neighboring the Terra Indígena Yanomami– is not demarcated.

“On the rivers Padauiri, Aracá and Demeni [afluentes do rio Negro], there are 4,600 Yanomami. Every month, 300 indigenous people come to the city to receive benefits”, says Ribamar.