Report warns that illegal gold mining has returned to Yanomami land

Yanomami indigenous associations issued a statement today warning that illegal wildcat mining activities have returned to the protected land, with reports of unauthorized gold extraction operations on the Apiaú and Couto de Magalhães rivers.

Published by the Hutukara, Wanasseduume Ye’kwana, e Urihi associations in the Yanomami territory, the report complains of a lack of government efforts to combat illegal gold mining in the Apiaú River — which is one of the access points to the indigenous land — and the return of extractive operations to the previously pacified Couto de Magalhães River.

At the beginning of his term in January, Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva visited the Yanomami indigenous land at the northern edge of the Brazilian Amazon and declared a public health emergency.

Soon after, the administration launched a mass operation to expel an estimated 15,000 gold miners from the Yanomami territory. The number of these so-called garimpeiros went through the roof during the previous far-right government of Jair Bolsonaro, who actively pushed to reduce environmental oversight in the Amazon.

But the operation has faced criticism from all sides in Brazil’s northernmost state of Roraima. Those in favor of the illegal gold mining claimed the treatment of the trespassers was inhumane, while representatives of local Yanomami associations complained that the operation was simply moving the problem around.

“We hope the federal government will present a plan to ensure the protection of indigenous peoples, to ensure that this invasion of garimpeiros doesn’t just repeat itself,” Ivo Aureliano, legal advisor of the Roraima Indigenous Council (CIR), told The Brazilian Report in February.

This week’s statement also points out logistical failures in distributing food packages to malnourished Yanomami people, and a persistent increase in malaria cases.

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