Brazil Pushes Illegal Gold Miners Out Of Yanomami Indigenous Territory

Brazil is conducting a massive operation to expel illicit miners from the indigenous property.

In a remote area of the Amazon jungle that belongs to the Yanomami indigenous community, government officials destroyed a plane and seized boats, ammunition, and gasoline used by the miners.

The indigenous reserve near Brazil's border with Venezuela has been invaded by thousands of illicit gold miners, BBC reported.

The raid is a component of a bigger policy to slow down the spread of unlawful mining.

It is a collaborative effort between Brazil's environmental protection agency, Ibama, the indigenous affairs department, Funai, and special forces tasked with protecting the environment.

Officials stated that the goal of the operations was to disrupt the flow of supplies rather than to target specific villages with an estimated 20,000 illicit miners distributed across the dense rainforest region.

With an estimated 28,000 people, the Yanomami indigenous group is seriously threatened by the miners and their illicit operations.

Diseases, violence, and environmental damages caused by the influx have triggered a humanitarian crisis among the Yanomami, resulting in the deaths from preventable diseases and hunger of scores of Yanomami children.

Two weeks ago, the government airlifted 16 members of the group out of the jungle to treat them for malnutrition.

Following President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's declaration that the treatment of the Yanomami was "a premeditated crime," federal police this month opened an inquiry to see if the former government of President Jair Bolsonaro might be charged with "genocide."

Ex-President Bolsonaro made a point of promoting the Amazon region's economic growth. During his four years in office, there was a rise in violence, with illegal miners shooting at indigenous populations.

Some illegal miners have been spotted leaving the Yanomami lands since the new government began taking action.

According to Marcio Astrini of the Climate Observatory, a network of 72 climate NGOs, said it was key to find alternative employment opportunities for the miners, many of whom are very poor.

He told the G1 news site, "if nothing is done if these people don't have alternative incomes. they will end up coming back to the areas from which they have been expelled, or they will invade new ones."

According to Justice Minister Flávio Dino, the federal government is developing a plan to assist them.

The Yanomami is a group of approximately 35,000 indigenous people who live in some 200–250 villages in the Amazon rainforest on the border between Venezuela and Brazil.