Senator reacts to statements by Vice President Mourão on ‘fanciful’ number of miners in Yanomami Lands

The statement was made during a press conference held this Thursday, the 12th.

May 13, 2022

10:05

Diovana Rodrigues – Cenarium Magazine

MANAUS- During a press conference held this Thursday, 12, the President of the Senate Human Rights Commission, Senator Humberto Costa (PT-PE), responsible for the diligence in Roraima (RR) to investigate violence against the Yanomami Indians, refuted the statements made by the Vice-President of the Republic, Hamilton Mourão (Republicans-RS), about illegal mining.

External Commission responsible for the diligence in Roraima to investigate the violence against the indigenous Yanomami.
Distribution: Roberto Stuckert Filho.

At a meeting of the National Council for the Legal Amazon (Cnal), held the day before, Mourão affirmed, that the information about miners acting criminally on indigenous lands is “fanciful”. “Independent of whether there are 30 thousand or 3 thousand, the function and role of the Federal Government is to guarantee that these lands are respected, to comply with the Constitution, to prevent a single indigenous person from dying because of these situations where there is disease transmission, where there is criminality involving the Indians and other problems,” said Humberto Costa.

In the company of other federal legislators, such as federal deputy Joênia Wapichana (Rede-RR) and senators Eliziane Gama (Citizenship-MA) and Leila Barros (PDT-DF), as well as representatives of agencies such as the Brazilian Army, National Indian Foundation (Funai) Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama), Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio), Special Indigenous Health Secretariat (Sesai) and the Legislative Assembly of Roraima, discussed the crimes committed within the Yanomami Indigenous Territory.

Structure to the parliamentarians

The president of the Commission regretted that Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), president of the Senate, and the Army did not guarantee the structure to the parliamentarians of the diligence to go to the area of conflict between indigenous people and miners

“Our idea was to get to know the reality on the ground. But, unfortunately, either because of the lack of ostensible support from President Pacheco, or because of the Army’s refusal, we were unable to leave Boa Vista,” said Humberto.

Humberto’s request to the president of the Senate for the provision of logistical structure and security from the federal government to the parliamentarians was not carried out. “A good part of the institutions that were here today committed themselves to presenting us with reports on their activities, on their participation in operations, and on the situation of the services provided to indigenous people, especially in the case of health,” said Humberto.

We have to understand that mining on indigenous lands is illegal. Mining outside indigenous land is another debate. If it is illegal, it is a crime. If it is a crime, there are no two sides. There is a version that we are facing a criminal act. If it is a criminal act we have to fight it. The numbers we received from the University, from the researcher, from the Federal Government agencies, point to exactly this, something around 20,000 miners, illegally on Yanomami land,” said Federal Senator Eliziane Gama.

Lack of security on indigenous lands

Federal Representative Joênia Wapichana reports on the lack of security on indigenous lands. “A very serious issue that was reported by the agency is the issue of increased suicide among adolescents, who may possibly be involved with some of the impacts of mining. The issue of alcoholism, this is quite serious. This violence against children and adolescents is what the diligence came to address. On the other hand, we see the issue of diseases that have been reported: an increase in malaria and malnutrition among children”, she adds.

For Senator Leila Barros, the main point and focus is to understand that there is no autonomy, since it is very much linked to the Central Government, to Brasilia. “I also see that the Army’s actions, with General Zucco, showed us that the Army and the Armed Forces are interested in contributing and working in these operations, but our perception is that within this conversation there is the indigenous issue, the social issue, where there is a health, migration, and health crisis, and this directly affects the region and we are looking for solutions,” says the Senator.

Also read about the Commission formed by Senators and Lawmakers on the complaint of violence against the Yanomami people in Roraima, here.