Defenders of mining in Brazil are asking the Brazilian government to help tens of thousands of miners leave the Yanomami Indigenous Land (TI), which covers part of the states of Roraima and Amazonas. Many prospectors began to leave the area shortly after the federal government announced that the removal of non-indigenous people from the Yanomami reserve was a priority and that, if necessary, it would employ state security forces to carry out the so-called disintrusion process. Federal government representatives themselves, such as the Minister of Indigenous Peoples, Sonia Guajajara, and the Minister of Justice and Public Security, Flávio Dino, have already confirmed that they have information from intelligence agencies about the mobilization of miners to leave the area. Today the Minister of Justice announced that the federal government will start, this week, the second phase of the action plan in the indigenous land, moving from the humanitarian assistance phase to the police phase, with a coercive character against miners and, mainly, against the financiers of the illegal mineral activity in protected areas. Garimpeiros’ departure Representatives of the garimpeiros allege, however, that some of the measures that the federal government put in place to force them to leave the area – such as controlling airspace and prohibiting non-indigenous people from entering the IL – made it difficult for them to move inside the largest indigenous land in the country, with around 9.6 million hectares (each hectare corresponds to the approximate measurements of an official soccer field). “The law has to be enforced. We are not going to discuss this, but we need the federal government to help the workers on some issues,” Jailson Mesquita, political articulation coordinator for the Garimpo é Legal Movement, told Agência Brasil. According to Mesquita, due to the bans imposed by the federal government over the past two weeks, miners who find themselves in remote areas where they were taken by plane or boat can no longer find transport to return to urban centers. Still according to Mesquita, many of these miners are getting together in groups to venture out on foot, through the Amazon forest, which, in some cases, can last more than 20 days. “This is an announced tragedy, the likely beginning of a new humanitarian crisis. We are talking about workers. There are people who are not so young anymore, over 40 years old, over 50 years old; women and many people who have never done a walk like this before. In addition, there is a risk of these groups meeting indigenous groups and, as a result, resulting in a confrontation, with prospectors and Indians killing each other,” added Mesquita. Although they did not meet with any representative of the Federal Executive Branch, the representatives of the prospectors handed over to parliamentarians from Roraima and the state government a list of actions that they expect the Public Power to carry out in order to facilitate the departure of prospectors from the area. Demands The garimpeiros ask the federal government to allow access by planes and private boats to the interior of the Yanomami Indigenous Land or, alternatively, offer air or river transportation for those who want to leave the area immediately. If the government chooses to transport the miners in aircraft already mobilized for the humanitarian and assistance mission to the Yanomami, the miners ask that the places where the miners should go to get help be defined and announced in advance, with an indication of the runways of landing and takeoff that will be used. “It is also important that the federal government undertakes not to criminalize prospectors who seek public assistance to leave the area. Otherwise, it will be impossible to bring them together. They will be in the middle of the bush and, tomorrow or the day after, we will have to mobilize the government to recover bodies or rescue missing people”, added Mesquita, defending the creation of a commission, composed of state parliamentarians, responsible for monitoring the situation. “We are making ourselves available to help remove prospectors who are waiting for support [do governo federal] to leave the area spontaneously. We don’t need shows [midiáticos], because we are dealing with life. With those of our indigenous brothers and with those of between 15,000 and 20,000 prospectors who know that mining in indigenous lands is illegal, but also that it was the result of a social arrangement that society made to allow subsistence [das pessoas em um] state that has nothing, does not have an industry that generates jobs”, concluded Mesquita.
Agência Brasil
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