President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva held a meeting today (30th) to discuss emergency actions to protect and help the Yanomami, people who are experiencing a health crisis that has already resulted in the death of 570 children from malnutrition and preventable causes in the last four years.
Among the planned actions are nutritional and health care, with food suited to the habits of the indigenous people, and the guarantee of necessary security so that health teams can work in the villages. Another priority is to quickly guarantee access to potable water through artesian wells or cisterns and to measure mercury contamination of rivers and people.
The Yanomami Indigenous Land (TI) is the largest in the country in terms of territory and suffers from the invasion of miners. Contamination of water by mercury used in mining and deforestation impacts on the safety and availability of food in communities.
“The president has determined that all these actions be carried out as quickly as possible, in order to stop the death toll and help the Yanomami families”, informed the Presidency, in a note.
To combat illegal mining and other criminal activities in the region, initiatives must be adopted to prevent air and river transport that supplies criminal groups.
“The actions are also aimed at preventing access to the region by people not authorized by the government, seeking not only to prevent illegal activities, but also the spread of diseases”.
Click here to check the coverage of Brazil Agency about the subject.
The Ministers of the Civil House, Rui Costa; of Justice, Flávio Dino; Defense, José Mucio; of Indigenous Peoples, Sônia Guajajara; of Human Rights, Silvio de Almeida; from Mines and Energy, Alexandre Silveira; for Institutional Relations, Alexandre Padilha; in addition to the commander of the Air Force, Marcelo Damasceno; the president of Funai, Joenia Wapichana; and the executive secretary of the Ministry of Health, Swedenberger Barbosa.
Although indigenous entities and bodies such as the Federal Public Ministry (MPF) have already denounced the lack of assistance to these communities for a long time, now, with President Lula taking office, the federal government is implementing emergency measures to help the Yanomami.
The last of them, this Monday, the Ministry of Justice and Public Security created a working group which must present proposals for actions to be implemented by the federal government in order to combat the action of criminal organizations in indigenous lands, including illegal mining.
