Mining, drug trafficking and gangs: Yanomami leader Dário Kopenawa fears direct conflict in the villages

Iury Lima – Cenarium Magazine

VILHENA (RO) – Fear for their lives and a constant sense of danger torment residents of more than 300 villages of the Yanomami People, ethnic group that inhabits the largest Indigenous Land (TI) in the country, on the border between Brazil and Venezuela. A result of the violent scenario that feeds the imminent risk of direct conflict between the native populations and the invaders of the Amazon forest, as revealed by the vice president of the Hutukara Yanomami and Ye’kwana Association (Hay), Dario Kopenawa, in an interview to CENARIUM MAGAZINE.

“The Yanomami are at great risk. The women, the children, the young and the old. Everyone is afraid”, says the indigenous leader. “I, particularly, am very afraid. Today, it’s not only mining. It’s heavy armament. Pistols, rifles. These are weapons of war, not common weapons. It is a weapon of war, what they are using now in the Yanomami Land. I don’t want to die by firearms”, Dario Kopenawa said.

The crimes occurring inside the reserve have gone beyond the dispute for natural resources, because according to the prison system of Roraima, drug traffickers linked to the largest criminal faction in Brazil are hired as security guards and lookouts for the illegal mining camps.

Also read: Indigenous teenager is killed after being raped by miners in Palimiú (RR), denounces Yanomami

Lawless Land

The degradation caused by illegal mining almost doubled in the reserve in one year. It went from 2.2 thousand hectares in 2020 to 3.2 thousand hectares in 2021.

Located between Amazonas and Roraima, the reserve covers more than 9 million hectares and is home to almost 30,000 indigenous people. According to estimates by the Hutukara, an entity that represents the communities in the region, 20 thousand miners have infiltrated the reserve.

The number of invaders is more than double the population of São Luiz, the smallest city in Roraima, which has just over 8 thousand inhabitants. It is as if entire populations of small Brazilian towns set off in search of gold.

“Mining is increasing more and more, more and more, because there is no operation, because the federal government has not provided protection for the Yanomami”, lamented Hay’s vice president.

Read also: Study shows that fish consumption is threatened because of illegal mining in the Yanomami Indigenous Territory in RR

Bloodshed

In the last year alone, the Palimiu community, in the region of the municipality of Alto Alegre, in northern Roraima, was the target of 15 armed attacks orchestrated by miners. One of the episodes, which occurred in May 2021, gained great repercussion because it was recorded on video. Miners appeared aboard a boat on the Uraricoera River and shot at the inhabitants who were on one of the banks. Children and adults were killed.

More recently, at the beginning of last October, a 15 year old adolescent was shot in the face when the indigenous leader Cleomar Xirixana, 46 years old, was assassinated in the Napolepi village, also in the Alto Alegre region.

The crime was denounced by Dario Kopenawa to official bodies such as the Federal Police (PF), the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPF) and the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI).

Organized Crime

The murder of leader Cleomar Xirixana, as well as other attacks and conflicts, is attributed to miners and members of criminal organizations that profit from the destruction of the forest, the Yanomami’s home.

No wonder that the climate in the villages is still one of terror. The relationship of the First Red Command of the Capital (PCC) is cited, for example, in the report “Yanomami under attack”, which points to evidence of the closeness of organized crime with illegal mining. The publication is from the Instituto Socioambiental (ISA).

“The approximation between drug trafficking and mining in the Amazon, however, is not restricted to Roraima. In several other regions, such as Pará and Mato Grosso, what some have called ‘narcogarimpo’ (collaboration between illegal mining and narcotrafficking) has been the standard behavior”, says an excerpt from the document.

“The factions killed Cleomar. The Yanomami told me,” said Dario Kopenawa. “These invaders, this organized crime, who were in jail, for example, here, in Roraima, enter Yanomami land, because there is no surveillance”, he criticized.

Read also: In 20 days, six Yanomami children die from lack of medical care in Roraima

Respect

Tired of so much massacre, Dario Kopenawa appeals for only two things: protection and respect. “We have a weapon called the Federal Constitution. So, all that is needed is to comply with the Constitution, and for the authorities to follow the Constitution”, pointed out the indigenous leader.

“White man, respect the diversity, the culture, our beliefs, the culture of the Brazilian people, the culture of the popular. You have to respect our people. You have to restrain the deforestation, the mining companies from entering the Indigenous Lands, restrain the farmers who are cutting down the land that has been ratified, registered, and is in the process of demarcation. This has to stop. It is necessary to immediately disinvest from illegal mining”, concluded Kopenawa.

Funai

Questioned by CENARIUM MAGAZINE, the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI) said that it coordinates permanent protection actions in the Yanomami Indigenous Land and that the work is conducted by Ethnoenvironmental Protection fronts.

The federal government agency also said that it supports inspection operations in partnership with environmental and public security agencies, “such as the Federal Police, the Federal Highway Police, the National Force, the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama) and the Army Forces”.

The Federal Police (PF), in Brasilia and in Roraima, did not respond. The Brazilian Army also did not return our contacts.