Indigenous people captured, this Tuesday (23), a group of miners who were in Yanomami Land in the Homoxi region, in Roraima. According to the Urihi Yanomami Association (UAY), the invaders were escorted to agents of the National Force who are in the territory.
The indigenous people reported that they did this because they were “witnessing their only means of consuming water being contaminated by mercury, due to the presence of miners in the locality”.
In a video that recorded the moment, it is possible to see a group of more than ten miners, most of them men, arriving on foot at the place where a National Force team was located. Then, the indigenous people appear with arrows and shotguns.
In a statement, Urihi stated that it immediately informed the federative bodies and awaits feedback on the removal of the invaders from the location. “The slow extrusion of miners in the most isolated regions of the territory has subjected their communities to violence from criminals, with a special impact on their means of sustainability”, says the note.
A CNN found that the miners will be taken by National Force agents, this Wednesday morning (24), to the Federal Police superintendence in Boa Vista.
A CNN also contacted the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples (MPI), the Federal Public Ministry and the National Foundation of Indigenous Peoples (Funai) about the incident and is awaiting feedback.
The region is one of the most affected by mining
In March last year, a joint federal government operation in the Yanomami Indigenous Land, in Roraima, resulted in the demobilization of 137 clandestine camps offering logistical support to illegal miners and invaders. On that occasion, the government regained control of the Homoxi community, which is one of the regions with the greatest presence of illegal mining in the Yanomami TI.
The largest indigenous territory in Brazil, the Yanomami Land is facing a humanitarian crisis. On January 20 of last year, the federal government declared a Public Health Emergency of National Importance in light of the health and humanitarian crisis in the indigenous territory. Throughout 2023, several operations were carried out.
Among the actions of the Ministry of Health in the Yanomami territory, the following stand out: increasing the number of professionals working in the territory; carrying out mass testing and active search for malaria detection; the creation of the first Nutritional Recovery Centers in Casai and Polo Base Surucucu; and the hiring of 22 nutritionists and the use of 5 tons of nutritional formulas with support from Unicef.
On the other hand, the security forces acted openly to remove the invaders from indigenous land.
For the Urihi Yanomami Association, it is necessary to emphasize that carrying out operations solely to destroy materials and machines “becomes ineffective if not accompanied by monitoring and specific strategies at the entry points into the territory”.
Source: CNN Brasil
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