Yanomami leaders reported the murder of three indigenous youths in the region of Homoxi, Terra Indígena Yanomami (RR). The perpetrators of the crimes would be prospectors who work illegally in the area.
The complaint was forwarded to the president of the District Council for Yanomami and Ye’Kuana Indigenous Health (Codisi-YY), Júnior Hekurari, and released by him this Sunday (5). The circumstances of the crime have not been clarified. It is thought that the homicides were the work of fleeing miners. The approximately 20,000 illegal miners who were in the region have been fleeing the Indigenous Land after the federal government announced a plan to protect the reserve.
“The Ministry of Indigenous Peoples (MPI) and Funai have already requested immediate action from the Ministry of Justice for an action to remove the bodies, so that the family can at least carry out the cultural death ritual,” said the MPI in a note.
The Yanomami Indigenous Land is experiencing a humanitarian crisis caused by clandestine mining and the omission of the bodies responsible for protecting indigenous peoples.
prospectors escape
Two weeks after the Lula government (PT) declared a health emergency in the Yanomami Indigenous Land, measures to combat illegal mining began to take effect. The first records of prospectors fleeing the protected area were identified by indigenous leaders and by the federal and Roraima governments.
Read more: Encouraged by the Bolsonaro administration, miners begin to flee Yanomami territory
In the Yanomami Indigenous Land, the escalation of violence against indigenous people is one of the consequences of the prospector invasion, which has intensified since 2017 and grew almost uncontrollably during the mandate of Jair Bolsonaro (PL), a notorious supporter of mining in indigenous lands.
Child dies of severe malnutrition
On Sunday (6), a one year and five month old child died of severe malnutrition and dehydration in the Haxiu region, one of the areas most affected by illegal mining, close to the border with Venezuela.
The child would be taken to Boa Vista (RR) for treatment, but heavy rains prevented the helicopter from taking off. According to Junior Hekurari, the transport had already been authorized by the Army. “It was a fatality”, lamented the leadership.
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Another result of illegal mining is the growth of hunger, malnutrition, malaria, pneumonia and mercury contamination. The Federal Public Ministry of Roraima (MPF-RR) estimates that 20,000 miners work in the territory where 30,000 Yanomami and Yek’uana indigenous people live.
Editing: Rodrigo Durão Coelho
