BRASILIA (Reuters) – The Minister of Justice and Public Security, Flávio Dino, said on Monday that once the operation to expel miners from Yanomami lands is completed, in early April, the phase of disintrusion from six other territories will begin. indigenous people who face the same problem.
Around 20,000 prospectors occupied the largest indigenous reserve in Brazil, which was hit by a humanitarian crisis, prompting the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to declare a health emergency for the Yanomami and to put into practice a task force involving the military, police, environmental protection agencies and indigenous peoples to remove the invaders.
“Once the Yanomami operation is over, we are going to continue with the removal operations. We have, in view of the ADPF 709 of the Federal Supreme Court, six more removals to be carried out this year”, Dino told journalists, referring to the action presented by the Articulation of the Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (Apib) to the STF asking for the expulsion of non-indigenous people from six more territories in the lands of Karipuna, Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau, Kayapó, Araribóia, Mundurucu and Trincheira Bacajá.
According to Dino, in addition to the departure of prospectors from Yanomami lands, 68 million reais were seized related to the financing of illegal mining in the region.
Gold mining is an old problem in the region where the Yanomami live. When the Yanomami reserve was demarcated and recognized by the government in 1992 in Roraima, authorities mounted an operation to expel thousands of miners. They have returned to the area in impressive numbers under former President Jair Bolsonaro, who advocated mining on indigenous lands and whose administration turned a blind eye to reservation invasions by illegal miners and loggers.
The expulsion of prospectors from Yanomami lands raised concerns about their migration to other indigenous territories, which are also already experiencing problems related to the agrarian dispute, in addition to health and environmental issues.
(Reporting by Maria Carolina Marcello; Writing by Maria Carolina Marcello)