By Marcela Gottschald
Recently, images were released of what has been considered the biggest crisis affecting an indigenous group, the Yanomami, since the re-democratization of Brazil. In them, we can see people, mainly children, in a scenario that for a long time we thought no longer existed in Brazil, extreme malnutrition.
Coupled with this, the number of deaths is also terrifying, since during Bolsonaro’s government, about 570 Yanomami children lost their lives because of conditions that, with proper support, are easily treatable, such as malnutrition, malaria and respiratory infections.
But the Yanomami crisis is not something new, although its aggravation is visible during the four years of Bolsonaro’s government. This crisis is a proper military project and dates back to the dictatorship that ravaged the country in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. This shows that there has been a conscious effort for the situation to reach such a point.
It was not an omission. It was not oblivion. The Yanomami crisis was a deliberately implemented project. Something developed to eliminate those who live in and protect the Amazon rainforest from the destructive fury of capitalism.
The Yanomami and their territory
The Yanomami are a people who have little contact with the so-called western civilization, with some groups still living in total isolation. They live in the north of the Brazilian Amazon, in the states of Amazonas and Roraima, and their territory comprises both sides of the border with Venezuela.
Their contact with non-indigenous people, previously sporadic, intensified during the military dictatorship of 1964, where the slogan “integrated Indian is the one who becomes work” prevailed, and since then there have been several periods of crisis. This has always had two agents in common: the military and the illegal miners.
Numerous metals, including gold, are found in the subsoil of the Yanomami lands. This, when discovered, attracted miners from different localities, in a new “gold rush”, and put in the crosshairs all indigenous people who could get in the way of this metal.
However, with the demarcation of the Yanomami TI, still in the 1990s, and with systematic operations to remove miners from the area, the situation eased, at least momentarily.
But this period of relative peace was short-lived, and the number of illegal miners in the region increased again and new invasions took place. It is estimated that during the last four years, the number of miners on Yanomami lands exceeded 20,000, a figure close to the total number of indigenous Yanomami.
Illegal mining and the role of the government and the military
As it is a demarcated territory and an important forest area for the planetary climate, the “legal” mining companies cannot destroy the area in search of gold. The illegal miners are left with the task of deforesting, destroying, polluting and killing.
And to circumvent legislation and make illegal mining possible, the army, as the armed wing of the government that should protect the territory, acted at various times in favour of mining. Allied to this, during the Bolsonaro government, ministers of the state acted to assist in the gold mining process, either as legal concessions or as passivity in the inspection.
Another important actor in this process was former vice president and general Hamilton Mourão, who for three years was president of the National Council of the Legal Amazon, a body whose objective is to “coordinate and integrate federal efforts for the preservation, protection and development of the Brazilian Amazon.” However, Mourão appointed military men he trusted to strategic positions, and together they worked to intensify and legalize mining on indigenous lands, contributing greatly to the calamitous situation we face now.
At the same time, numerous positions in public agencies that historically protect the forest and indigenous peoples, such as the Brazilian Environmental Institute (Ibama) and the National Foundation of Indigenous Peoples (Funai), were occupied by military officers. Thus, the entire state network for the protection of indigenous peoples and the Amazon was, totally or partially, under the command of the military.
It should also be remembered that mining, in addition to destroying the jungle and polluting the rivers by spilling mercury into the water, imposes other terrors on the indigenous population: they drive away hunting, bring alcohol and other drugs to young people, recruit men for their projects and rape women and girls.
The worsening of the crisis
In addition to the direct and indirect impacts of mining, 2020 saw the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic period, a disease that disproportionately affected minority groups, especially indigenous peoples.
Because they are more vulnerable to infectious diseases, such as COVID, indigenous people are considered an at-risk group, requiring greater care in both the prevention and treatment of cases. This is even more critical when we talk about indigenous people living in total or relative isolation, as in a large part of the Yanomami population.
However, during the pandemic, there was intentional negligence by the government, which went so far as to deny the supply of drinking water and ICU beds to the indigenous population. The same intentional negligence could be seen when the government ignored dozens of requests for assistance, either for infectious disease cases or for malnutrition.
The result of all this can be seen today.
What is being done?
Because of the massive broadcast of the Yanomami situation, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva travelled to Roraima, together with the Minister of Indigenous Peoples, Sônia Guajajara, Minister of Health, Nísia Trindade, Minister of Human Rights and Citizenship, Silvio Almeida, among others, to evaluate and initiate an action plan.
Indigenous people in a more precarious health situation were transferred to hospitals to receive adequate treatment, basic food baskets were made available and health professionals were recruited to attend to this population.
In addition, a commitment was “signed” to act in an decisive and constant manner to solve the causes of the problem, which, however, are multiple and complex to solve. Some actions that, according to the current government, will be implemented are:
– Reopening of Funai support units and Basic Health Units.
– Call for professionals to work in the region;
– Restricting access to Yanomami territory, to reduce the risk of disease transmission.
– Removal of illegal miners, as well as machinery used in mining.
We do not know what long-term actions will actually be implemented, nor what impact the mitigation actions will have on the current scenario. What we do know is that the entrepreneurs linked to illegal mining are not going to leave indigenous lands without the intervention of the State and that the State cannot bow its head before the power of capital. Otherwise, scenes like those we have seen will repeat and the Amazon will continue to be devastated, further aggravating the ecological crisis in which we find ourselves.
Given the already chronic situation of vulnerability and the constant attacks that the Yanomami population, as well as other indigenous ethnic groups, have been suffering, it is of utmost importance to follow up on actions to ensure that the proposed measures are adequate to the seriousness of the situation and that they are actually implemented, including those that have an economic impact on companies linked to illegal mining.
In addition, it is necessary to identify and sanction all those who benefit from the extraction of gold from Yanomami lands, as this is a known illegal and criminal practice.