A year after the Brazilian government’s attempted expulsion of thousands of illegal gold miners who caused a health crisis in the Yanomami indigenous reserve, in the state of Roraima (in the north of the Amazon), the local population denounces the resumption of mining activities on their territory.
“We don’t know how many there are, nor how many mines remain active, but we know that gold panning is increasing every day”alerted Dario Kopenawa Yanomami, a leader of the indigenous Yanomami people, on September 14, 2023 in the newspaper Economic Value. “The Yanomami can no longer sleep because of the noise of the planes [utilisés par les orpailleurs pour se ravitailler et transporter l’or], engines and machines », he continued.
On site, the health situation is worrying. “Diseases are back », points out Dinamam Tuxa, executive coordinator of the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil. According to the Ministry of Health, 308 Yanomami died between January and November 2023, almost as many as in 2022 (343), notably as a result of pathologies caused by parasites (36), such as malaria, or malnutrition (29). Among the deaths in 2023, more than half (162) were children under 4 years old.
Mercury pollution
These diseases are the direct consequence of gold panning: deforestation, linked to the construction of mining sites, as well as the water which stagnates in abandoned pits encourage the proliferation of mosquitoes carrying parasites. In addition, the mercury used to separate gold from ore contaminates rivers and kills wildlife, depriving the estimated 30,400 indigenous people of part of their livelihood.
The Brazilian President, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, had nevertheless promised, at the start of his mandate, in 2023, that he would ” stop ” to illegal gold panning. Under the government of his predecessor, far-right President Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022), the drop in funds allocated to Ibama, the national environmental agency, and Funai, responsible for protecting indigenous rights, had favored the massive entry of gold miners into the region. The deaths of 570 Yanomami children under the age of 5 from preventable diseases under his mandate and images showing skeletal indigenous people sparked outrage.
Accusing his predecessor of “genocide”, Lula was quick to act. As of January 22, 2023, he declared “health emergency” in the territory and closed, ten days later, the airspace of the Yanomami indigenous territory, which extends over 9.6 million hectares, in order to cut off supplies to gold miners.
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