April 12, 2022

11:04

Yusseff Abrahim – from Cenarium Magazine

BRASILIA – Two Yanomami were executed and five were injured early Monday afternoon, during a conflict with miners and indigenous people from the Tirei Community. The information was confirmed by the president of the District Council of Indigenous Health Yanomami and Yekuana, Júnior Yanomami, who is in Brasilia participating in the Terra Livre Camp, to a report by CENARIUM MAGAZINE.

The indigenous leader explained that miners are arming the Tirei Community, favorable to mining, and inciting conflict with the Yanomami village, located in the lower part of the river, which is being affected by the exploitation.

“It was a shootout, but against a community that had no weapons, and they ended up taking a Yanomami with a machete. It is a very sad situation,” explained Júnior.

The leader explained how the fact serves to illustrate the entire chain of escalating problems triggered by the illegal mining situation.

“The miners aren’t just taking a bar and materials to mine. The miners are taking heavy weaponry. It’s rifles, submachine guns, to intimidate the communities that can’t respond. So they work in fear, because several times already, in the 80s and 90s, we were massacred, nobody wants to be killed by miners.

The murder of the Yanomami in the region of Xitei, in the municipality of Alto Alegre, happened at a time when the indigenous, gathered at the Acampamento Terra Livre in Brasilia, were in the final preparations for the act “Gold of Blood”, which placed allegories of giant gold bars, mud and red paint in front of the Ministry of Mines and Energy, representing the indigenous people killed by mining and illegal mining.

“It happened at noon today as we were preparing to protest here against the miners. The reports that we received is an unfortunate situation. The government is responsible and to blame for not removing the miners”, said Júnior.

MPF has already requested action from the Union

After noting the occupation by illegal miners in the region known as Serra dos Surucucus, in Roraima, the Federal Public Ministry (MPF) filed a request with the Justice Department on March 31 for the Union to combat the actions in the humanitarian crisis in the Yanomami Indigenous Land (TIY).

Images of the occupation of the illegal mines were shown around the world, with the indigenous health trails dominated by miners who, each day, carry out attacks with violence and intensify the degradation of the traditional habitat of the Yanomami.

See the moment of the shooting