August 15, 2023

11:08

Karina Pinheiro – From Cenarium Amazon Agency

MANAUS (AM) – The governor of Roraima, Antonio “Denarium” (Progressistas), had his mandate revoked on Monday, 14, for distributing food baskets during the election period in 2022. The Chief Executive was elected with 56.47% of the votes in the 2022 elections, having in his name a value of R $ 21,552,758.00 of declared assets, mostly plots of land and sites.

“Denarium” is also investigated for the crimes of loan sharking, abuse of economic power, spreading fake news, nepotism, electoral cashier and coercion, accumulating a series of controversial speeches involved, such as xenophobia. In addition, there was encouragement of mining and racism in the Yanomami crisis.

Migratory xenophobia

Antonio “Denarium”, in the migratory crisis that occurred in 2018 in the State of Roraima, with the great flow of migration of Venezuelans to Brazil, tried to prevent the arrival of immigrants, appealing to the Supreme Federal Court (STF) on the entry of refugees through the State, even promising to install barriers against immigrants at the border. The governor also suggested carrying out a program to “return” the refugees back to the neighboring country.

“We have to do a program to return them to Venezuela as well, to their cities of origin […] There are Venezuelans who end up staying in Roraima for a long time, they don’t get a job, and some of them show a desire to return to Venezuela, but they don’t have the financial conditions. So, there has to be a program to return Venezuelans, an action by the federal government to reintroduce them to Venezuela. And there is a cost to do this: you need a ticket, a bus, food,” he said.

The president attributed the responsibility for the increase in violence to Venezuelans, defending the cases of xenophobia pointed out by refugees. “The people of Roraima are welcoming, but there comes a point [when] the population becomes angry. Several Venezuelans have committed crimes there. The population ends up revolting,” he said.

Yanomami crisis

During the humanitarian crisis of the indigenous Yanomami, the investigated claimed that the illegal mining in the region was not responsible for the health crisis faced.

At the time, the governor of Roraima was pointed out by the Hutukara Yanomami Association as an accomplice for the tragedy announced within the Indigenous Land (TI), and who also mentioned that the indigenous people should “acculturate”.

“I have 260 schools in indigenous communities. They want to be lawyers, teachers, doctors. I think it’s right. They have to become acculturated, they can no longer stay in the middle of the forest looking like animals”, he declared.

A request made by the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office of Roraima (MPF-RR) was made on January 30, 2023 for “Denarium” to be investigated for racism, after a speech. In one of the excerpts of the official document of the ministry, it is reported that he expresses a derogatory opinion.

“Denarium” denied that the crisis affecting the Yanomami was not exclusive to the State, but to all the last presidents, not just former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL), with whom he is allied. The politician also declares that the indigenous people should get together to start exploring their fertile areas, comparing them to casinos installed in indigenous reserves present in the United States.

“Imagine you, unemployed, poor, hungry, sick. Inside your house you have a Picasso painting worth $1 billion. What would you do? Sell it. Then you take the money and improve your quality of life. Just like the Native Americans”, he says.

When pressured to remove the miners from the region, the then chief executive once again argued that illegal mining was not responsible for the malnutrition of the indigenous people and asked the federal government to dialogue and provide federal aid to provide another source of income.

“The miners have to find another alternative income, with support from the federal government, so that they can get them out of the areas they are working. In other words, the state government works for non-indigenous and indigenous people as well”, he said.

Illegal mining supporter

An advocate of the practice of mining in the region, he ended up sanctioning two laws that facilitated illegal activities in the state. The first one took place in February 2021, from the governor himself, releasing all types of mining in Roraima, with the use of mercury – a substance used to clean gold and harmful to the environment and human health – with the prior justification of independent research work.

However, in September of the same year, the STF considered the law unconstitutional, diverging from the federal model of environmental protection, and that it “represented an affront to the Union’s competence to establish general rules on the subject”.

In July 2022, after coming under intense pressure from prospectors, the governor signed a second pro-garimpo law: protection of the assets of illegal miners, prohibiting inspection agents from destroying machinery of environmental invaders, authored by state lawmaker George Melo (Podemos). Prior to the announcement, “Denarium” had a closed-door meeting with the author of the project.

Law No. 1,701/2022 was celebrated by supporters of the project, who held a ‘barbecue’ at the Civic Center, in front of the Senator Hélio Campos Palace, seat of the state government. At the time, the governor called the prospectors “mining entrepreneurs” and stated that the ban would not apply to indigenous lands, however, there was no mention of such a rule.

Millionaire in agro

Antonio “Denarium” owns 56 plots of land, houses, apartments, fixed-income investments, shares, bank deposits in current accounts, quotas or shares of capital (companies in legal format), vehicles, as well as a house and other assets and rights.

In 2023, a meatpacking plant fined for environmental crimes, deforestation and invasions of indigenous lands in the Amazon was linked to “Denarium” as one of the founding partners. Between 2005 and 2019, the partners of the company Frigo10 received 18 environmental fines, totaling almost BRL 20 million. In all, the partners affected 4,500 hectares of the Amazon rainforest in several regions of Roraima and were fined by the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama).

In March this year, the Roraima government hired the governor’s partner to illegally use transgenic seeds and pesticides on indigenous lands. In all, more than 120 million transgenic seeds were used through a grain production program fully funded by the state government, aiming to reach 2,000 hectares planted in indigenous territories by 2023.

The governor of Roraima invested millions from public coffers to bring pesticides, soil amendments and fertilizers to indigenous lands in nine municipalities of the state. Provided by Agropecuária Garrote, owned by former deputy and cattle rancher José Lopes Primo, the governor’s partner in agricultural projects and partner of Frigo10.