Minister Luís Roberto Barroso, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), ordered an investigation into suspected genocide and other types of crimes against the Yanomami people by the previous government, former president Jair Bolsonaro. The order was forwarded to the Attorney General’s Office (PGR), the Military Public Ministry, the Ministry of Justice and Public Security and the Superintendence of the Federal Police in Roraima.
The investigations will not be limited to the suspicion of genocide, but will include crimes such as breach of court secrecy, disobedience and environmental crimes that threatened the health, safety and life of several indigenous communities.
Barroso demanded the measures in an order related to an action that is being processed in the STF in secrecy of Justice. The minister ordered the sending of documents that, according to the Supreme Court, “suggest a picture of absolute insecurity of the indigenous peoples involved, as well as the occurrence of action or omission, partial or total, by federal authorities, aggravating this situation”.
According to the Minister of the Supreme Court, several measures may have compromised operations to repress prospectors, such as the disclosure, in the Official Gazette of the Union, of the date and place of a secret operation to intervene in indigenous lands. The information was published by former Minister of Justice Anderson Torres, currently arrested on suspicion of collaborating with the anti-democratic acts of January 8.
The Coordination of Inspection Operations of the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama) also disclosed, according to the magistrate, the date and location of the operation in an email sent to the agency’s employees.
Barroso also cited indications of change in the planning of Operation Jacareacanga, by the Brazilian Air Force (FAB). According to the magistrate, the transfer of information to garimpeiros compromised the success of the action.
Expulsion of prospectors
In relation to another action, filed by the Articulação dos Povos Indígenas do Brasil (Apib), Barroso determined the expulsion of all miners from indigenous lands yanomami, karipuna, uru-eu-wau-wau, kayapó, arariboia, mundurucu and trench bacajá. In the process, Apib questions the lack of protection for these communities during the worst phase of the covid-19 pandemic.
According to Barroso, the withdrawal should begin with the areas in the most serious situation. The minister also questioned the effectiveness of the strategy of stifling the supply of materials to the mines. “The strategy previously adopted, of ‘suffocating’ the logistics of such mines, did not produce effects, if it was implemented at all”, wrote the minister.
Barroso determined that the PGR be informed of the full content of the process, for the investigation of a possible crime of disobedience by the authorities involved and gave 30 days for the Union to present a diagnosis of the situation of the indigenous communities and to prepare a schedule for the execution of the actions not fulfilled .
