By Osvaldo Cardosa
Correspondent in Brazil
The ruthless language of such images prompted critical reflection in society, and government action created the Public Health Emergency Response Center.
From its publication in the Official Journal, the public authority was authorized to use personnel and material to deal with the case.
Adding fuel to the fire, on January 28, the Yanomami Health Council registered six more deaths in the indigenous reserve in northern Roraima state and in Boa Vista, its capital.
One of the victims is Rodênia Yanomami, 33 years old, who remained in the intensive care unit of the local hospital with severe malnutrition.
The G1 portal, which had access to the mother’s death certificate, indicates that she suffered from refractory metabolic acidosis and pseudomembranous colitis. This occurs when the patient suffers from severe dehydration, nutrient deficiencies, and intestinal inflammation that can be caused by vermin.
The deceased’s husband is also ill, but he is accompanying the young daughter, who is admitted to the Roraima children’s hospital with another severe picture of malnutrition. A total of 47 minors from the ethnic group are still in the hospital.
The Board confirmed the deaths of five more Yanomami in communities near the Surucucu Base Pole on the Aboriginal Reservation. Among them a nine-year-old boy and a village chief.
Under this grim scenario, President Luiz Inácio visited Lula da Silva more than a week ago.
“If someone had told me that these Yanomami are being treated inhumanely in these countries like I’ve seen, I wouldn’t have believed it,” Lula told reporters after touring local villages and speaking with their leaders.
He assured that his government “takes very seriously the proposal to eliminate illegal mining activities in the Amazon rivers” that contaminate the waters with mercury that causes disease among the population, in addition to killing the fish that the Yanomami eat.
“We will set up health centers in the villages, we want to show that the Unified Health System is able to do an honorable job like it did in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic,” said the founder of the Labor Party.
Lula denounced that defeated President Jair Bolsonaro (2018-2022) had failed the Yanomami population.
DAMN CHAIN
Lawyer Marcelo Chalréo, President of the Social Rights Commission of the Brazilian Lawyers’ Order in Rio de Janeiro, explained in an exclusive interview with Prensa Latina that the impressive photos published show a horrific picture of acute malnutrition and various diseases among hundreds of Yanomami.
He pointed out that the indigenous people were being moved to Boa Vista from their ancestral lands “to literally not die of one or the other.”
He stressed that a Department of Health task force bringing together other public agencies is working to prevent more Aboriginal deaths.
According to official data released so far, which may be underreported, more than 500 tribal peoples have died in almost four years, the human rights defender said.
“This stems from constitutional restrictions (constitutional spending cap amendment) on public health disbursements and the de-structuring of public bodies responsible for indigenous peoples’ policies, such as Funai (National Foundation of Indigenous Peoples) and Sesai (Special Secretariat for Indigenous Peoples). Health),” denounced the renowned lawyer.
Likewise, he added, due to the brutal increase in illegal gold mining in the Yanomami area by thousands of miners, prompted by irresponsible policies by the Bolsonaro government during his tenure, despite existing legal prohibitions.
«Without owning a gold mine, not even one that is legally operating, Roraima has grown in recent years to become one of the largest producers in the country of the precise metal, which is exported by ‘heating’ its origin using companies to enforce illegality disguise,” explained Chalréo Prensa Latina. He insisted that certainly many are involved in this practice, men who go to the jungle after the metal, various types of merchants, government officials, financiers and others in charge of companies with Based in major Brazilian cities and passing through other countries.
“A chain of genocide that must be uncovered, with exemplary punishment for all involved, without forgetting all the reparations due to these indigenous people, whose territory, dignity and life must be effectively protected by the Brazilian state,” he noted.
Still shocked after his hometown visit, Lula tweeted: “What I saw in Roraima was more than a humanitarian crisis, it was genocide: a premeditated crime against the Yanomami, committed by a government insensitive to suffering is.” , alluding to Bolsonaros.
The government said it would send food parcels to the reserve, which is home to around 26,000 Yanomami, in a region of tropical jungle and savanna where there are signs of organized crime being involved, along with illegal mining.
BOLSONARO GENOCIDE
The chilling photos of malnourished local minors also revealed that 30 years ago, as a federal congressman, Bolsonaro had proposed the end of indigenous Yanomami lands.
The proposal by the then member of parliament was made in November 1993 and anticipated an end to the demarcation of borders.
Currently, this reserve continues to be the target of illegal mining, which has grown unchecked with Bolsonaro in power.
According to the ex-soldier’s bid at the time, the homeland obstructed the constitution by “creating differences between Brazilians” and preventing the exploitation of the region’s existing natural resources.
Among his theses, the former paratrooper reiterated that the jurisdiction had compromised the Roraima border with Venezuela “regarding its delivery to the Indians.”
Based on the new facts, the federal police have now announced that they are opening an investigation to clarify whether it was genocide and the failure of the previous executive to provide assistance to the Yanomami people.
The investigation is being launched at the request of Justice Minister Flavio Dino, who was part of the delegation that visited the indigenous region.
Two other complaints are pending preliminary examination by the International Criminal Court (ICC), based in The Hague, Netherlands.
In it, the Association of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil and the Arns Commission accuse the former ruler of having committed genocidal crimes during his four-year tenure during the Covid 19 pandemic and also against indigenous peoples.
During his presidency, Bolsonaro alluded to mining on indigenous land several times, and his administration even proposed a bill that would allow the practice within the law.
For example, in March 2022, he claimed that “the Indian wants the internet, he wants to exploit his land legally, not only for agriculture but also for mining.”
Quoted by the G1 portal, Professor Eloísa Machado, of Constitutional Law at the Getulio Vargas Foundation in Sao Paulo and one of the lawyers who worked in the complaint against the ex-military man at the TPI, testified that the Bolsonaro government launched an anti- policies – indigenous peoples who showed intent to destroy these peoples.
“According to the Rome Statute, genocide is defined as any act carried out with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a specific group, such as a specific indigenous people,” Machado said.
It stated that “among the types of conduct that may be characterized as genocide are serious violations of physical and mental integrity, as well as willful submission to living conditions capable of destroying a given people”.
The teacher confirmed that in the four years of Bolsonaro’s government, this anti-indigenous policy has emerged and how can the former president be brought to justice, punished and held accountable?
“Whoever needs to be convinced that crimes are actually taking place or have been committed and need to be investigated, the prosecutor who works at the International Criminal Court is very similar to the figure that we have here of the prosecutor,” he said.
He listed that five to ten years is a period in which this prosecutor’s office comments on the actual opening or non-opening of an investigation, recalling that the first complaints date back to 2019.
“Once the investigation is opened, this prosecutor gathers elements, makes his own beyond what the organizations have sent (to The Hague) and then decides to file a formal complaint with the court to indicate the nature of the crime that may have been committed.” , he repeated . . .
In this sense he mentioned “crimes against humanity in the form of extermination and persecution or genocide as defended by groups of the indigenous peoples of Brazil”.
For the Yanomami ethnic group, justice is one of the needs of their people today, along with health.
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