Brazil’s largest indigenous reservation will be 30 on Wednesday, but the Yanomami see little reason to celebrate the anniversary in their lands tainted by the killings, rapes and environmental degradation of gold diggers.
The territory of the native Yanomami, the size of Portugal, was demarcated near the Brazil-Venezuela border on May 25, 1992, after decades of fighting.
This 30 years must have resulted in rallies and celebrationsexpresses theAFP Sonia Guajajarahead of the Association of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil.
Instead, we are experiencing this violence and destruction, along with government complicity of far -right President Jair Bolsonaro. According to Yanomami leaders, about 20,000 illegal gold diggers have invaded their territory, killed indigenous people, sexually assaulted women and teenage girls and contaminated their rivers with mercury that helps separate the gold from the sediment.
Ang garimpeiros (miners) have widely spread malaria, tuberculosis and recently COVID-19 in these lands where 29,000 Yanomami, Ye’kwana and several isolated groups live, with weak immunity.
This reserve is not just one, but, with its 96,000 km2, this is the largest. It initiated the demarcation of 725 native lands, covering 13.8% of Brazil.
At a time when humanity is concerned about global warming, many studies have shown that the best way to preserve carbon-absorbing forests is to protect indigenous peoples.
The Yanomami, known for their body paintings and their warrior spirit, are a semi-nomadic ethnic group that lives by hunting and gathering and lives in huts grouped in small villages scattered in the forest. Their encounter with garimpeiros is a real shock.
The miners, many of whom have links to drug trafficking networks, arrived with helicopters, excavators, generators, receiving satellites, alcohol and narcotics.
The Hutukara Yanomami Association (HAY) reported last month that gold diggers use alcohol, drugs, food and trinket to attract Yanomami and then abuse women and girls.
Information spread about some killings of natives committed by armed miners.
We are suffering. Garimpeiros rape women and children. They are killing us and polluting our riverssays Mauricio Yanomami, a 35 -year -old activist working in health. The forest also needs peace. He also suffersHe added.
With rising gold prices, the area skimmed by miners in the Yanomami reserve has increased by nearly 33 km2 last year, a record since it began compiling this data in 2018, according to Hay.
In the Brazilian Amazon, illegal mining has destroyed 125 km2 last year, according to government figures.
The large Yanomami reservation was created in particular after the influx of miners in the 1980s, which brought malaria and violence, both of which were responsible for displacing approximately 20% of the indigenous population within seven years.
For the activists who fought for the creation of the reserve, unfortunately the situation only worsened. Unlike in the 1980s, artisanal miners are now well -organized, financially financial and have a secret air transport network.
They can also count on President Jair Bolsonaro, whose father, a gold digger for some time, introduced him to this activity, and whose government is campaigning for the opening up of indigenous lands for mining.
The Bolsonaro government did everything it could to undermine indigenous rights and environmental law. They declared warbelieves Fiona Watson, ofNGO Survival International.
The Brazilian presidency did not respond to a request fromAFP. This is a genocidesaid Catholic missionary Carlo Zacquini, an 85-year-old Italian who has tirelessly fought for the reserve since 1968. He had an ulcer, he said, but did not despair.
What I see best here is the Yanomami fighting for the defense of their rights.
Source: Radio-Canada
