Data confirm that the tragedy is a direct result of the dismantling of health services and the worsening of the prospector invasion promoted by the Bolsonaro government
On January 20, the Sumaúma news agency reported that 1 children aged up to five died from preventable diseases between 570 and 2019 in the Yanomami Indigenous Territory (TI) (AM-RR). The photos of emaciated, malnourished children and elderly people, published in the press and on social networks, caused commotion inside and outside Brazil.
Accompanied by several ministers, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) went to Roraima to evaluate the crisis. The government declared a health emergency in the area and announced a series of measures, such as sending medical teams to the region and setting up a field hospital in Boa Vista.
The repercussion of the case generated indignation, doubts, surprise, with the impression that the problem was only now made public, and, of course, fake news. Soon, fake news began to circulate to divert the focus from the responsibility of former president Jair Bolsonaro. Against facts and images, he classified the situation as a “farce of the left”.
O ISA summarized below, in a text of questions and answers, the main information and scientific data collected by researchers, government technicians, the press, civil society and the communities themselves so that you can understand the humanitarian tragedy that befell the Yanomami and help fight misinformation .
Can what is happening in the Yanomami Indigenous Land be considered genocide?
A Law 2.889 / 1956 says that genocide is characterized by “the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”, through acts such as: “killing members of the group; cause serious harm to the physical or mental integrity of group members; intentionally subjecting the group to conditions of existence capable of bringing about its total or partial physical destruction; adopt measures aimed at preventing births within the group; carry out the forcible transfer of children from the group to another group”. The definition follows international law.
Jurists heard by the press in recent days say that there are indications that the Bolsonaro administration committed the crime in the Yanomami TI, but only a trial by Brazilian or international justice can confirm it.
On Monday (30), the Minister of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) Luís Roberto Barroso ordered the opening of an investigation against federal authorities to investigate this possibility. It is not known exactly who is the target of the process because it is under secrecy.
Last week, the Minister of Justice, Flávio Dino, had already determined that the Federal Police (PF) should also investigate possible crimes of genocide and failure to provide assistance by the previous government in indigenous territory.
The murder of 16 Yanomami by miners in 1993, known as the “Massacre de Haximu”, is the only case of the crime of genocide confirmed by the Brazilian justice system.
What are the reasons for the health crisis in the Yanomami Indigenous Land?
Worsened over the last five years, the reasons for the crisis are the breakdown of indigenous health care and the prospector invasion, responsible for a series of health, environmental, socio-cultural and economic impacts on the communities.
It is not true that the origin of the situation is the supposed productive incapacity of the indigenous people. On the contrary, with their land and natural resources preserved, they maintain good living conditions.
The health tragedy affects Brazilian populations and territory and is not caused by the immigration of vulnerable indigenous people from Venezuela. No official body communicated that there are refugees from that country among the unassisted people.
It is also not true that the Yanomami crisis is common to other indigenous populations at this time. There are other ITs with similar problems, but not on the same scale and for the same reasons.
What is the relationship between illegal mining, the spread of disease and malnutrition among the Yanomami?
Gold mining is directly responsible for a series of serious problems among native peoples. In the Yanomami case, there is a proven relationship between the explosion in activity and the increase in cases of infectious diseases, such as the flu and pneumonia.
The association between the devastation caused by illegal mining and the spread of malaria is unequivocal, facilitated by the multiplication of invaders and by the craters with standing water, the result of the activity and conducive to the proliferation of mosquitoes that transmit the disease.
Due to fairly recent contact and relative isolation, indigenous people have less immunological defenses against diseases common among non-indigenous people.
The occupation of the territory, the destruction of the forest, the contamination of bodies of water promoted by mining make it difficult to maintain and open gardens, hunt, fish and gather fruits, the main sources of food for the communities.
A part of them is also enticed. Especially vulnerable to false promises of prosperity, young people are given weapons and food to work or join the invaders. Women are sexually abused and exploited. The resurgence of violence creates a climate of permanent tension. Residents are besieged in their own villages.
The whole picture is aggravated by the dismantling of assistance to indigenous people. In addition, invaders have taken over part of the service infrastructure, such as landing strips and health posts. The mining violence makes it difficult for medical teams to be present and for the distribution of medicines and food.
Without food and medical care, the condition of the sick worsens. As the indigenous economy depends on family labor, traditional subsistence activities become unfeasible with people permanently ill or working in mining, in a vicious circle of hunger, physical weakness and scarcity.
What is the extent of the health crisis in Terra Yanomami?
According to data from the Ministry of Health obtained by the agency sumauma, 570 children aged up to five died of preventable diseases in the Yanomami TI between 2019 and 2022, an increase of 29% compared to 2015-2018. According to the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples, 99 children aged one to four would have died in 2022 alone, due to causes such as malnutrition, pneumonia and diarrhea.
About 56% of the children in the area monitored had acute malnutrition (low or very low weight for their age) in 2021, according to data from the Special Secretariat for Indigenous Health (Sesai) provided to the public agency. “The nutritional status of Yanomami children is really very bad, only comparable to data from children in sub-Saharan Africa”, said doctor Paulo Basta, from Fiocruz to agency.
Between 2020 and 2021 alone, the Yanomami TI recorded more than 40 cases of malaria, according to the Ministry of Health's Epidemiological Surveillance Information System (Sivep). This is all for a population of around 30 people.
It is important to note that the Yanomami TI is the largest in the country, with around 96 km2 (surpassing the extent of Portugal), and there are differences between the 370 communities. The regions farthest from the invasions have a more favorable sanitary condition, although the precariousness of health care impacts the entire territory.
What has happened to Yanomami health services in recent years?
Indigenous health was disrupted by the Bolsonaro government, although it has always had deficiencies. The Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated and opened the situation.
In the Yanomami case, mismanagement of resources and political apparatus, with the appointment of people without knowledge and experience to important positions, created a picture of disorganization, shortages of equipment, manpower, medicines and other inputs.
Indigenous people e Health professionals reported the closure or abandonment of health centers and the reduction in attendance at those that continued to operate. The problem was documented by the report Yanomami Under Attack, published by Hutukara Associação Yanomami and Associação Wanasseduume Ye'kwana.
Audits by the federal administration itself confirmed several shortcomings in the Yanomami Special Indigenous Health District (DSEI-Y): outdated health indicators; non-compliance with working hours and service targets; delivery of medicines with an expiration date close to the expiry date; transportation by aircraft without flight authorization, among others. The reports were ignored by the government.
In 2022 the Ministry of Health ran out of chloroquine to treat cases of malaria among indigenous peoples in the Amazon. The Bolsonaro government recommended the drug to treat Covid-19 and even distributed it for this purpose among the Yanomami, although the World Health Organization (WHO) and scientists reject its use.
The Federal Public Ministry (MPF) and the Federal Police investigate possible fraud in the purchase of medicines for the Yanomami. A part of the medicines would have ended up in the mines within the indigenous territory itself.
In fact, the health crisis is even worse because of underreporting and the “blackout” of data in recent years. For example, 90% of Yanomami children were monitored by DSEI-Y in 2019, but the number dropped to 75% in 2022. In official statistics, there was an improvement in malnutrition records, but the opposite occurred, simply because the number of children monitored dropped. At the beginning of the Bolsonaro government, it was already known that the situation was bad and, even so, surveillance was reduced.
When exactly did the health crisis in the Yanomami Indigenous Land begin? Has it just come out to the public?
There is no doubt that the situation worsened from 2018 and 2019, with the elections and the beginning of the Bolsonaro government, although there were already problems with assistance and invaders in the area. The anti-environmental speech by Bolsonaro and his allies and the dismantling of inspection bodies encouraged the illegal occupation of protected areas and provoked successive records of deforestation. The Yanomami territory was one of the most affected.
When the indigenous people began to monitor the effects of mining in 2018, 1,2 hectares had already been deforested. Between 2019 and 2022, another 3,2 hectares were devastated, an increase of 309% in the period. Last year alone, forest destruction jumped 54% compared to 2021 (see chart above). One hectare corresponds more or less to a football field.
The spread of malaria had been growing gradually since the last decade, but it was considered under control, until it took a leap five years ago, following the evolution of the devastation. The volume of cases doubled between 2018 and 2021, going from around 10 to more than 20 per year, an unprecedented level (see chart below).
It is not true, therefore, that the situation will be the same in 30 years, although the Yanomami have already gone through serious crises, mainly with the intensification of contact with non-indigenous people and the first great wave of mining, in the 1970s and 1980s. Professionals of health and indigenous leaders reaffirm that the situation has never been so serious in this period.
Many people had the impression that the crisis was made public only now because the news about it reached an unprecedented audience, as a result of the repercussions of the visit of the recently sworn-in President Lula and the emergency measures taken by his government.
Who are responsible for the Yanomami health crisis?
Notoriously anti-indigenous, Bolsonaro was the first president of the Republic since redemocratization not to demarcate “no centimeter” of ILs, as he promised in his campaign.
Throughout the government, he encouraged environmental crime and its regularization, especially illegal mining in the ILs. He also promoted an unprecedented administrative dismantling of the National Foundation for Indigenous Peoples (Funai) and Ibama, responsible for overseeing these areas.
All of this resulted, as of 2019, in a wave of invasions of protected areas and successive deforestation records in about 15 years. The Yanomami TI was one of the most affected.
Indigenous health also suffered from the disruption of public policies by the Bolsonaro government. The deficiencies that already existed worsened.
Military and security forces also reduced enforcement and often withheld support for operations to remove invaders and protect villages.
The entire situation was denounced to federal agencies, the Public Ministry, the press and on social networks by the District Council of Yanomami and Ye'kwana Health (Considisi-Y), the Hutukara Associação Yanomami, the Articulação dos Povos Indígenas do Brasil (Apib) it's the ISA. The warnings were disregarded, however. At least 21 letters about the case were ignored by various official institutions in just two years, reported the The Intercept Brazil.
The Bolsonaro government failed to comply with most of the decisions taken by the STF and the Federal Court of Roraima, starting in 2020, to ensure care for indigenous peoples during the Covid-19 pandemic, such as ensuring vaccination, the presence of health professionals, sending medicines, supplies and basic food baskets, and implementing sanitary barriers.
The order to isolate and contain gold miners in the Yanomami TI was also ignored. The same happened with decisions by the STF and the Federal Court for the Union to formulate and execute a plan to remove the invaders. Also disregarded was a decision of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and requests from Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. If the determinations and warnings had been heeded, the crisis would not have occurred or would have been smaller.
Therefore, the responsibility for the tragedy, in different degrees and aspects, are the former president Jair Bolsonaro and the former vice president Hamilton Mourão, then coordinator of the National Council of the Amazon, responsible for articulating the actions of environmental inspection in the region during the last government. The respective directors, in the former government, of Funai, Ibama, the PF and the ministries of Health, Justice, Defense and the Environment, among others that an adequate investigation may point out, may also be held accountable.
What measures has the government taken so far to face the health crisis in the Yanomami TI?
Also on the 20th, the federal government declared a Public Health Emergency of National Importance in the Yanomami TI. This is a situation that demands the urgent use of measures to prevent, control and contain risks, damage and harm to public health, in situations that can be epidemiological (outbreaks and epidemics), disasters or lack of assistance to the population. . The latter is the case of the Yanomami.
The federal administration also announced the sending of medical teams to provide emergency assistance and make a diagnosis of the situation, in addition to the installation of a field hospital in Boa Vista and a Center for Emergency Operations in Public Health (COE), which will carry out the coordination of actions against the crisis and should be managed by Sesai.
A National Coordination Committee to Combat Sanitary Assistance for Populations in Yanomami Territory was also created, which will discuss the measures to be adopted, support the articulation between powers and states and present an action plan in 45 days. The ministries of Indigenous Peoples, Health, Defence, Justice, Development and Social Assistance, Family and Combating Hunger and Management and Innovation in Public Services are part of the collegiate.
On the 23rd, a team from the National Force of the SUS was also sent to Roraima. At least XNUMX patients have already been rushed out of the area., after the declaration of the emergency situation.
The government is planning a major operation to remove the garimpeiros. The action still does not have a date to take place, but this Monday (30), in a meeting with several ministers, President Lula asked for haste in blocking the airspace and the main rivers that cross the area, with the aim of strangling the mining logistics. Around 56 tons of food and medicine have already been sent to the Yanomami TI, according to the Brazilian Air Force (FAB).
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