Agents from the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama) and the Federal Highway Police (PRF) dismantled more than 190 camps set up by prospectors who operate illegally inside the Yanomami Indigenous Land.
The action is part of Operation Omawe, launched in the first half of February. Named after an ancestral Yanomami hero, the joint action aims to remove all non-Indians from the reservation for the exclusive use of the ethnic group.
Environmental inspectors and federal road police also disabled more than 100 pieces of equipment such as barges, electric power generators, engines and boats. They also seized around 19,000 kilos of cassinterite illegally extracted from inside the indigenous land.
The destruction of heavy machinery and other instruments and chemical products aims to discourage miners, who have already been identified, from returning to the camps and recovering the seized items that the operation is unable to remove from the site, given the difficulties in accessing the area.
With about 9.6 million hectares, the indigenous land covers part of the states of Roraima and Amazonas. Each hectare corresponds to approximately the measurements of an official football field.
Operation Omawe is part of the actions that the federal government has implemented since January to try to solve the humanitarian crisis that hit the Yanomami Indigenous Land. Motivated by accusations that the illegal activity of miners is destroying the forest, contaminating the rivers that supply local communities and affecting the survival conditions of the populations, the Federal Executive sent to the region, still in January, a team of technicians from the Ministry of health.
At the site, public health workers came across malnourished children and elderly people – many weighing well below the recommended minimum – as well as people with malaria, acute respiratory infections and other illnesses without receiving any kind of medical assistance. This finding led the Ministry of Health to declare a Public Health Emergency of National Importance in the indigenous territory, which, in practice, allows the federal Executive Branch to adopt measures to prevent, control and contain risks to public health on an urgent basis.
The federal government also set up the Public Health Emergency Operations Center (COE), which reports to the Indigenous Health Secretariat (Sesai), and is in charge of coordinating the public authorities’ responses to the emergency situation. Professionals from the National Force of the Unified Health System were deployed to care for patients taken to the Yanomami Indigenous Health House, in Boa Vista, and to the field hospitals that the Army set up in Roraima. As of this Thursday (9), at least 1,732 Yanomami had already received care at the HCamp in the capital.
The Ministry of Justice and Public Security also reinforced the Federal Police (PF) and the National Public Security Force to, among other measures, ensure the integrity of the health professionals who are working on the spot. With the same objective, the PRF reported having already deployed 85 agents, several vehicles and two helicopters for the mission. Ibama, in turn, mobilized several teams of environmental inspectors and at least three aircraft.
Based on Decree 11,405/2023the Brazilian Air Force (FAB) restricted flights over the Yanomami Indigenous Land and surroundings, implementing the Air Defense Identification Zone. FAB soldiers are also logistically supporting the distribution of food and medicine to the Yanomami villages and the transport of indigenous people who need medical care. Until this Thursday, around 14,254 basic food baskets had already been delivered to the villages and 137 people had been transported to receive medical attention.
