The Brazilian president has pulled out all the stops. Since Wednesday, February 1, the airspace of the Indigenous Yanomami territory has been closed to all aviation and the rivers have been controlled by the navy. The objective is clear: to asphyxiate the supply of garimpeiros, gold miners who have invaded and seriously polluted this territory of 10,000 hectares with mercury, to the point of causing an unprecedented famine among its people. "The Brazilian government is going to put an end to gold mining on all Indigenous territories, starting with that of the Yanomamis. No exploitation permit will be granted on Indigenous lands," President Lula told the press on January 31, detailing the measures he had just taken by decree.
Recent images of emaciated bodies, children with round bellies and protruding ribs with tufts of hair scattered on their skulls, have greatly shocked the country. Famine is a direct consequence of this criminal activity, which reportedly destroyed an average of 1,038 hectares per year in the Amazon during President Bolsonaro's term in office, according to the Mapbiomas platform.
It took President Lula's visit on January 21 to Boa Vista, the capital of the state of Roraima, for the country to realize the situation in which the Yanomamis found themselves. The very next day, the health minister declared the territory a "health emergency" and evacuated the most seriously ill, as the local health facilities were no longer in working order. In retaliation or in order to spread terror, the gold panners burned some of them or used them as warehouses.
'Health emergency'
In just a few days, nearly 1,000 patients were transported by helicopter to hospitals in Boa Vista and the Air Force dropped 61 tonnes of food in the villages. According to the Ministry of Health, 538 children under the age of 5 died during Bolsonaro's presidency, at least 495 because of "avoidable causes": acute malnutrition, malaria, pneumonia or even a simple intestinal parasitosis. Even though malnutrition is responsible for more than half of this infant mortality, in 2022, malaria was detected in 11,530 Yanomami patients, a record number and certainly underestimated. At the national level, this number corresponds to 9.3% of malaria cases, while Yanomamis represent only 0.013% of the Brazilian population.
"Brazil will use part of the international funds intended for the Amazon to help the Yanomamis and expel gold mining," said Minister of the Environment Marina Silva during her meeting with the German minister of economic cooperation in Brasilia on January 30. Svenja Schulze accompanied the German chancellor, who came to announce the resumption of the financing of the Amazon Fund up to €200 million. This endowment for preservation projects, which was created in 2008, was frozen during the Bolsonaro mandate.
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