Brazil moves on illegal mines in Indigenous Yanomami territory

ALTO ALEGRE – Brazilian authorities this week intensified their fight against illegal mining on the land of the Indigenous Yanomami people, sending helicopters over the Amazon jungle in search of clandestine dig sites.

From above, heavily armed police and officials from the Ibama environmental agency spot a camp: a brown patch of deforested land in the middle of the vast green carpet of the Amazon.

There are improvised sleeping quarters, a kitchen and bathrooms. The sound of engines thrumming indicates the miners are not far away.

Government agents have already blocked illegal movement on the area’s two main rivers, said Felipe Finger, an Ibama coordinator. 

“Now we are starting another phase – to attack these mining operations, break up and neutralise these camps.”

Spotting the helicopters, the “garimpeiros”, or illegal miners, flee into the jungle, leaving behind sacks of cassiterite – tin dioxide-rich ore known as “black gold” – which they sell to commercial buyers.

While camouflage-wearing soldiers torch the camp, agents question a 36-year-old miner who failed to escape.

“Illegal mining is not going to end – it has nothing to do with Lula or Bolsonaro,” he says, referring to the current leftist president and his right-wing predecessor.

The miner, who gave his name as Eduardo, said he could make 5,000 reais (RM4,440) a week working in the camp, adding, “where can you earn that in the city?”.

Yanomami leaders say some 20,000 clandestine miners have invaded their territory, killing Indigenous people, sexually abusing women and adolescents and contaminating rivers with the mercury they use to separate gold from sediment.

Nothing to eat

In January, the federal police opened an investigation of possible genocide linked to the miners’ abuse of the Yanomami and their resources.

The move came after an official report found that around 100 young children had died in the area last year, some from malnutrition.

“We suffer from diarrhoea and vomiting, we have no healthcare, people go hungry and we have nothing to eat,” one Yanomami told AFP on Friday.

Brazil’s air force has installed a field hospital in Boa Vista, the capital of northern Roraima state. The military said it has evacuated some 130 patients by helicopter from remote locations.

Early Thursday, armed miners aboard seven boats attacked an Ibama checkpoint on the Uraricoera river. One gang member was wounded in an exchange of fire while the rest fled.

Authorities said the attack showed the criminals were feeling the pressure of the government operation.

Illegal mining rose sharply during the 2019 to 2022 presidency of Jair Bolsonaro, who favoured opening Indigenous lands to such activity. – AFP, February 26, 2023