With simple houses, dusty streets, a few commercial establishments and churches, and located a two-hour drive from Boa Vista, Vila Reislândia is one of the main stopping points for prospectors leaving the illegal gold mining sites in the Uraricoera river region. , in the Yanomami lands. After a boat trip that can last a few days – at the cost of two and five grams of gold – according to prospectors, they need to disembark at a point called “beira” and still face a bumpy dirt road of almost 40 kilometers aboard a pickup truck, on a route that costs R$250, to reach the small village. Vila Reislândia (RR), 02/11/2012, Vila Reislândia, a region also known as Paredão, is a gateway for those coming from illegal gold mining areas on the Iraricoera River. – Rovena Rosa/Agência Brasil The area where Reislândia is located is better known as Paredão. There it already functioned as a point of arrival and departure for those who sought the dream of becoming rich in the Uraricoera region, a river that crosses the Yanomami lands and flows into the Branco River, in the capital Boa Vista. Escape route But, with Operation Liberation, which brings together government forces to put an end to illegal mining activity in Yanomami lands, the place has become an effervescent escape route. There, dozens of app drivers line up, next to a gas station, to help evacuate prospectors from the region. A ride to Boa Vista costs R$150 per person on a group trip. The climate among drivers is one of distrust in relation to the press and the police cars that eventually circulate there, but also of competition between them. When a truck arrives from the “border”, with a group of prospectors, the drivers compete in the race. Some wait hours for the opportunity to get the “race”. Several of them had stayed overnight in Reislândia and, at noon on Saturday (11), were still waiting for the first prospectors to arrive from the “beira”. Suddenly, a pickup truck appears on the road, coming from the river, and speeds along the main street of Reislândia, but does not stop at the gas station where app drivers are concentrated. One of them, possibly in a previously agreed way, follows the truck to a wooden house. Three prospectors There, three prospectors get out of the truck with their few belongings and start the race to Boa Vista. Marco Rogério Brandão, from Pará, 51 years old, is one of them. He has been working as a miner for ten years, the last seven months being in Yanomami lands, he left the mine last Thursday (9), but due to problems with the boat, which broke the engine twice, he only managed to arrive two days later in Vila Reislândia, paying 3 grams of gold to the boatman (approximately R$ 900 at today’s exchange rate). Brandão now plans to settle in Itaituba, in Pará, another mining town, where his family has a rural property. But he says he doesn’t want to know about mining anymore. His plan now is to help his elderly father take care of the garden. “I wanted a better life for the family. I have a daughter here [no Brasil] and another in Venezuela. Before mining, I worked in the fields. In that business of people wanting to have a better life, I went into mining. I know there are many who want to take advantage of us, who are there to steal, that kind of thing. Me, thank God, no”. The prospector says that the last few days have been tense. He was afraid of being arrested or mistreated by the police forces. “I decided to leave about five days ago. We had a television in the shack and watched the news. And I said: “boy, let’s go”. There’s a lot of people [lá dentro] who says, “I won’t [embora]”. But to them we are criminals. And criminals know how they are treated, right?”. One of his main anxieties was not being able to win what he wanted. “It’s true that I went in with nothing, but I’m going to leave with nothing… I even wanted to have enough for me to bring, because I would leave there carrying it, even on foot. I wish I had a kilo of gold with me. The little bit that I gained, [vendi no próprio garimpo e] made transfer by pix “. Another in the group is a Venezuelan who, due to his status as an immigrant, did not want to be identified. In Brazil for six years, he says he has been working on Yanomami lands for more than two. “I’m going back to Venezuela. Because paying rent here is not possible”. He says that he even tried to enter the Brazilian formal job market, but failed. The option was to try life in mining. But, after having to flee the Yanomami lands, like Brandão, he no longer wants to do this type of work. The 60-year-old Aldecir Ferreira da Silva from Maranhão, who has worked in mining for over 40 years, demonstrates dissatisfaction with police actions to expel miners from indigenous lands. “The guy comes to earn some money to pay for his son’s education, to buy something to eat, and what’s going on there? We ‘were’ there working and now ‘everyone has to leave’… This is wrong. I was there for seven months. the order [dos policiais] and for [gente] be arrested. Who isn’t worried about being arrested? That’s why I left. Everyone is worried about prison.” The three agree to talk, but do not want to be photographed by the report. They are tired and only think about getting out of there. They have a quick lunch at a small guesthouse and then hit the road, initially towards Boa Vista, and then somewhere far from Yanomami lands.
Agência Brasil
Folha Nobre - Desde 2013 - ©