October 14, 2021

14:10

Priscilla Peixoto – from Cenarium

MANAUS – The Hutukara Yanomami Association denounced, on the afternoon of Wednesday, 13, that two boys of 5 and 7 years disappeared, in the late afternoon of Tuesday, 12, while playing in the river Parima, near the mining raft installed illegally in the Indigenous Land (IL) Yanomami, in the region of Alto Alegre, Roraima.

The indigenous leaders of the Makuxi Yanomami community in the largest Indigenous Land in Brazil reported that while playing in the waters, the children, who were supposedly cousins, were “sucked and spat out” into the middle of the river, being carried away by the current. The Yanomami and Ye’kwana Indigenous Health Council (Condisi-Y), the National Indian Foundation (Funai), and the Fire Department went to the site to search for them.

On Wednesday morning, the community found the body of the 5-year-old child lifeless, but the other boy is still missing. Also in a statement, the Hutukara regretted the death of the child and warned, once again, about the danger, violence, diseases and deaths caused by illegal mining activities in the IL.

“The death of the two Yanomami children is one more sad result of the presence of illegal mining in Yanomami Indigenous Land, which continues to be invaded by more than 20,000 miners (…) The Brazilian authorities must continue to act to protect the Forest-Land and prevent illegal mining from continuing to threaten our lives”, the association appealed in the text.

Indigenous Lands

The IL is home to more than 360 communities, totaling more than 27 thousand indigenous people. The territory, located between the states of Amazonas and Roraima, covers almost 10 million hectares and is the largest indigenous reserve in Brazil. The area has suffered degradation due to the presence of illegal mining, which has deteriorated the area since the 1980s.

Besides the degradation, the mining activity is also causing diseases to the indigenous people, mainly due to the contamination of the rivers, generally caused by mercury, a metal used by the miners to extract the gold.

CENARIUM tried to contact the vice president of the Hutukara Yanomami, Dario Kopenawa, for further details about the complaint, but had not heard back from him by the time this story was published.

Check out the note in full: