Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva accused on Sunday his former President Jair Bolsonaro’s far-right administration of committing genocide against the Yanomami people of the Amazon.
“More than a humanitarian crisis, what I saw in Roraima was a genocide. A premeditated crime against the Yanomami, committed by a government impervious to the suffering of the Brazilian people,” Lula expressed Sunday on Twitter, a day after visiting an overcrowded clinic for Yanomami patients in the capital of the Amazon state of Roraima, Boa Vista.
Brazilian Justice Minister Flavio Dino announced that he would order a federal police investigation into “strong indications” that the Yanomami had suffered crimes including genocide.
On the eve of Lula’s visit, alarming photographs of skinny Yanomami children and adults were circulated.
“The photos really shook me because it’s impossible to understand how a country like Brazil neglects our Indigenous citizens to such an extent,” Lula told reporters in Boa Vista.
The Brazilian President blamed his far-right predecessor for abandoning Indigenous communities and encouraging thousands of miners to flood the Yanomami enclave during his 2019-2022 government.
According to reports , “Those miners contaminated rivers and wrecked forests, depriving remote Yanomami communities of key food sources ,fish and other animals such as monkeys and wild boars , while simultaneously spreading malaria and hampering the efforts of government health workers.”
“As well as the disregard and neglect of the last government the main cause of this genocide is the invasion of 20,000 illegal miners, whose presence was encouraged by the ex-president. These miners poison rivers with mercury, causing destruction and death,” Lula explained, pledging that “there will be no more genocides.”
Before heading to Roraima with Lula, Brazil’s minister of Indigenous peoples, Sonia Guajajara, underlined that protecting Yanomami children from outrageous levels of malaria, verminosis, malnutrition, and diarrhea was her priority.
“Every 72 hours a child is dying from one of these illnesses, according to the information we’ve received,” Guajajara indicated, calling for the expulsion of the miners in the next three months.
On Sunday, another key Lula ally, former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, highlighted that the 570 Yanomami children who had died of hunger or mercury poisoning since 2019 were proof of the “Yanomami genocide”.
“There is a motive: the greed of the miners who invaded their lands. And there is a perpetrator: Jair Bolsonaro, who championed this invasion and denied medical assistance to the Indigenous,” Rousseff tweeted.
“All of those who are responsible, Bolsonaro included, must be prosecuted, judged and punished for genocide,” she added.
On his part, far-right Bolsonaro denied responsibility, claiming that such accusations were a “left-wing farce”. The former Brazilian President insisted that Indigenous healthcare had been one of his government’s priorities, despite activists highlighting that Amazon deforestation rose nearly 60% due to Bolsonaro’s policies.
Last month, the Yanomami leader Junior Hekurari said that Bolsonaro’s government was that “of blood”.
On Saturday, Hekurari said he had sent Bolsonaro’s government about 50 written pleas for help from the gold mining invasion and soaring levels of malnutrition, malaria, and deaths.
“He ignored our cry for help,” he tweeted on Saturday.
Before his 2018 election, Bolsonaro claimed during a campaign visit to Roraima that “other powers might turn” Indigenous territories “into other countries.”
However, “it was illegal miners, including at least one multi-millionaire businessman with ties to Bolsonaro, who laid siege to Yanomami lands, with the estimated number of garimpeiros [small-scale miners] operating there jumping from 5,000 to 20,000 during Bolsonaro’s government,” according to News report
Chronic malnutrition is the painful reality that Yanomami children face in Brazil’s largest Indigenous Land and is pointed out by specialists as one of the results of the federal government’s “anti-indigenous policy”. The lack, or scarcity, of medical care, together with the lack of environmental inspection, pushes the Yanomami into a desperate scenario. It is estimated that 20,000 illegal miners operate in the territory. Mining activity contaminates rivers with mercury and has caused deformities and illnesses in women and children. They live on the largest indigenous reserve in Brazil. There are nine million hectares within the Amazon Forest. Malaria has persistently advanced in Yanomami land: there are more than 16,000 cases this year alone. Several children are dying.
The Brazilian Air Force (FAB) transported, this weekend, about 4 tons of food to be distributed to a community in the Yanomami Indigenous Land, in Roraima. The federal government’s action is an emergency response to the health crisis that led the Ministry of Health to declare, last Friday (20), a Public Health Emergency of National Importance, which allows the Executive Branch to adopt, as a matter of urgency, , measures of “prevention, control and containment of risks, damages and harms to public health”. According to the Air Force, on Saturday (21), the day that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva visited Boa Vista, the capital of Roraima, the equivalent of 1.26 tons of food was transported to be distributed to the Kataroa community, in region known as Surucucu. On Sunday (22), there were another 2.50 tons.
According to the Ministry of Health, the supplies are part of the approximately 5,000 basic baskets that were stored at the headquarters of the regional coordination of the National Foundation for Indigenous Peoples (Funai), in Boa Vista. Of the total already available, 4,000 baskets will be destined for the Yanomami Indigenous Land and 1,000 will go to other communities. In addition, the federal government announced the delivery of 200 cans of food supplements for children of different ages.
The Minister of Development and Social Assistance, Family and Fight against Hunger, Wellington Dias, informed that the 5 thousand basic food baskets were acquired through a partnership with the Ministry of Management and Innovation in Public Services, Funai, Ministry of Indigenous Peoples, Ministry of Health and Armed Forces and transported from Amapá in FAB aircraft.
FAB aircraft took more than 2.5 tons of food to the Yanomami Indigenous Land – Twitter Brazilian Air Force As the Surucucu airport is under construction, the first food baskets had to be transported aboard military aircraft – a medium transport size, the C 98 Caravan, and an H-60L Black Hawk utility helicopter – which take about two hours to cover the distance between Boa Vista and Surucucu. In a note released on Saturday, the Ministry of Health estimated that, under these conditions, around 50 flights will be needed to take food to the indigenous land and, on the way back, transport the Yanomami who need to receive medical attention in the capital. On Sunday (22), 21 Indians were taken to Boa Vista.
According to the federal government, more than 30,400 indigenous people live in the area that the Union allocates for the exclusive use of the Yanomami. Motivated by accusations that the illegal activity of miners is contaminating the rivers that supply the local communities, destroying the forest and affecting the survival conditions of the populations, the federal government sent to the Yanomami Indigenous Land, at the beginning of last week, technicians from the Ministry of Health who found malnourished children and elderly people, many weighing less than the recommended minimum. There were also people with malaria, acute respiratory infections and other illnesses, without receiving any kind of medical assistance.
