Brazil is preparing a special group of armed forces, police and government agencies to soon launch an operation to evict the illegal gold miners who have invaded the Yanomami indigenous reserve, official sources said.
More than 20,000 wild miners are accused of bringing disease, violence and hunger that have sparked a humanitarian crisis in remote Yanomami villages in Brazil’s largest indigenous reserve bordering Venezuela.
Defense Minister José Múcio said the army was needed to evict the miners, who were well armed and had helicopters.
“Soon we will face them. We must root out this evil,” Múcio said in an interview with Band TV of the operation, which the government calls the “Yanomami Shield.”
With army troops on the ground, the navy will patrol the rivers and seize miners’ boats and excavators, while the air force will patrol the airspace, intercept suspicious planes and force them to land, he said.
View of an indigenous Yanomami village during Brazil’s Environment Agency operation against illegal gold mining on indigenous lands in Roraima state April 18, 2016. Photo: PortalJoenia Wapichana, who will become the first indigenous person to head the government agency for indigenous affairs Funai in a few days, said President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has promised to end illegal mining on protected reserves.
The Wapichana said he could not provide details about the upcoming operation so as not to alarm miners who have invaded Yanomami territory.
“President Lula’s message is that it’s going to happen soon and it can’t take too long,” he told reporters from Amazon journalism platform Sumaúma in a webinar co-sponsored by environmental NGO Mighty Earth.
Wapichana said the task force will involve federal police, the Environmental Protection Agency Ibama, the Funai and various ministries, as well as the military, as in previous crackdowns on illegal miners on indigenous land.
Half of the 100 tons of gold that Brazil produces each year, about 52 tons, is mined illegally, with much of it exported to Switzerland after being cleaned by Brazilian financial intermediaries, according to mining industry lobby group Ibram.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva during a visit to the Yanomami Indigenous Health House in Boa Vista, Roraima state, January 21, 2023. Photo: PortalMiners have been polluting the waters with the mercury used to separate the metal from the ore and soil. They fly supply planes to secret jungle airstrips and use the rivers to transport heavy machinery and fuel to their farms, which are muddy ponds where they dig for gold in jungle clearings.
Medical studies show that the mercury used by the miners has killed fish and contaminated the water on which the Yanomami depend.
The miners are increasingly being linked to well-armed gangs that have been terrorizing Indigenous communities who, for the first time, are unable to support themselves, leading to widespread malnutrition and deaths among the 28,000 Yanomami.
Last week, Lula declared a medical emergency in the Yanomami area. On Monday, his government ordered a no-fly airspace over the reserve and measures to block river traffic bound for gold prospecting, as a first step in the Yanomami Shield operation.
Lula’s predecessor, right-wing Jair Bolsonaro, defended mining on protected indigenous lands, and his government ignored invasions of indigenous reserves by wild miners and illegal loggers.
“We are in a new era,” Wapichana said. Those responsible for the humanitarian crisis afflicting the Yanomami will be punished for negligence, he said, and perhaps for genocide.