Garimpo increases conflicts between Yanomami communities

The invasion of illegal mining on lands in western Roraima not only generated environmental and health problems and direct clashes between prospectors and indigenous people, but also amplified conflicts between the Yanomami communities themselves. Issues such as the co-option of indigenous youths into gold mining activities, the spread of alcoholic beverages and the proliferation of firearms were responsible for the increase in intertribal violence. “The invaders contributed a lot to the increase in the Yanomami conflicts. The garimpeiros took many firearms to the communities. Last year, we had a very big problem in Xitei, where teenagers aged 12, 13 and 14 drank and killed each other, with [revólver calibre] 38. It’s very tense because the garimpeiros armed the Yanomami a lot”, says Júnior Hekurari Yanomami, who presides over the District Council of Indigenous Health for Yanomami and Ye’kuana (Condisi-YY). According to Júnior, among the regions where intertribal violence increased after the arrival of the miners are Tirei, Xitei and Homoxi. According to him, some of the invaders give weapons to the Yanomami, including so that the indigenous people can protect the prospectors against communities that are against the gold mining activity. Missionary The Italian priest Corrado Dalmonego lived for 14 years among the Yanomami in the Catrimani River region. Fluent in the Yanomami language, the most widely spoken among the native peoples of western Roraima, the priest is part of the Indigenous Missionary Council (Cimi), an entity linked to the Catholic Church that deals with indigenous issues. A missionary from the Indigenous Missionary Council, Father Corrado Dalmonego lived for 14 years among the Yanomami. – Rovena Rosa/Agência Brasil Also a master in anthropology and studying a doctorate in the area, Father Corrado says that the Yanomami’s access to firearms takes conflicts to another level. “There are communities with alliance relationships and others with more or less conflicting relationships, but conflicts between Yanomami communities are often resolved non-violently. Dialogues try to restore compromises. The ‘revenges’ are very limited, focused on certain people, which they call ‘unokai’, which they translate into Portuguese as criminal, murderer. So, conflicts are often resolved in specific actions”, says the priest. ammunition that mining offers, this causes an exponential increase in violence”, he emphasizes. Clash of generations Padre Corrado also draws attention to conflicts within the village itself, which are exacerbated by the presence of mining in these lands. “The attraction that mining brings, above all, to young people, who are more easily attracted to mining, causes internal conflicts in communities, between leaders and young people. And this also reverberates in intercommunity conflicts, between communities [yanomami] different people who are already experiencing tensions”. Tony Gino Rodrigues, belonging to the Macuxi ethnic group, also native to the region of Roraima, worked for 12 years as a health agent in the Yanomami lands. For him, the riches of mining attract the attention of younger people, who want, for example, to have access to new technologies such as cell phones (which they see in the hands of prospectors, but also in the hands of those who are there to help, such as Health professionals). Indigenous leader of the Macuxi people, Tony Gino Rodrigues, talks about the issue of the Yanomami indigenous people. – Rovena Rosa/Agência Brasil “This awakens the interest of any human being. The new generation is interested in getting those goods that are coming. And what is the easiest process to get a phone? By mining. And this also applies to other types of food that they have been experiencing throughout their lives, such as rice, salt, sugar, coffee. All this I can only buy with money. And if I don’t have a job, I can’t get it.” Apparent wealth According to Father Corrado, mining only brings “apparent wealth”, which may attract some of the indigenous people, since they receive payment in gold for providing services to prospectors, such as carrying fuel along forest paths. However, they end up spending the gold on drinks and prostitution, all at super-inflated prices, in the ‘currutelas’, as the villages built by prospectors near the ore extraction sites are called. Alcohol, consumed in ‘currutelas’, for example, intensifies underlying conflicts and tensions, as it can be the trigger for new fights, with aggressions and murders. “You have mercury contamination, deforestation, lack of food on a large scale, because game goes further away. Today, the number of prospectors in the forest was almost the same as the number of Yanomami. You almost double the amount of hunting. When mining arrives, you stop farming, you stop hunting, that is, you leave the traditional way of life to start a life that was taken in there and that no one explained how to behave within that environment”, explains Tony Rodrigues . Júnior Yanomami sees a difficult future ahead of him, but he has hope of remedying the damage caused by mining on his people’s lands. “It is worrying, and we will have a lot of work to fix these conflicts that happened [principalmente] in the last four years, but we are going to fix it”, says Júnior. *Ana Graziela Aguiar, from TV Brasil collaborated

Agência Brasil