The Brazilian government has declared a health emergency in the territory of the Yanomami people in Brazil’s northernmost state, Roraima, where it is estimated that almost a hundred Yanomami children died in 2022.
The minister for indigenous peoples, Sônia Guajajara, has said that 570 died during the four years of the Bolsonaro government.
The reasons are neglect and the presence of gold prospectors, who not only destroy the environment, but poison the rivers with mercury, depriving the Yanomami of key food supply, and bringing malaria. Brazilian television has been showing horrifying pictures of skeletal Yanomami children.
In an unusual move, President Lula travelled to Roraima’s capital, Boa Vista, to show his concern, and pledged to the remove the goldminers.
Under Brazilian law the presence of the goldminers is illegal, as the Yanomami territory was given legal protection in 1991 after a public campaign. President Jair Bolsonaro called for Brazil’s rainforest areas to be made “productive”, and weakened protections for indigenous peoples.
The Consolata missionaries, who staffed the diocese of Boa Vista for many years, were strong supporters of the Yanomami.
The Brazilian Church’s indigenous agency, CIMI, called for the “removal of invaders of Yanomami indigenous land”, describing it as “a symbol of the dismantling of policies of environmental and territorial protection under the extreme right-wing government”.
A task force from the Brazilian health service was expected in Roraima on Monday 23 January to set up a field hospital.
“Malaria has had an enormous expansion in recent years, and when you look at the historical data of the regions affected by goldmining today, the link is clear,” commented a researcher who has worked with the Yanomami since 2013.
“Many of the strategic health posts have been abandoned for fear of the goldminers, which means that simple conditions develop into more complex one; for example flu becomes pneumonia, and patients have to be taken to Boa Vista for treatment.”
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