Data confirms that the tragedy is a direct result of the dismantling of health services and the worsening of the mining invasion promoted by the Bolsonaro government.
On January 20, the Sumaúma news agency reported that 570 children under five years old died from preventable diseases between 2019 and 2022 in the Yanomami Indigenous Territory (TI) (AM-RR). Photos of emaciated, malnourished children and elderly people, circulated in the press and on social media, caused a stir both within and outside Brazil.
Accompanied by several ministers, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Workers' Party) traveled to Roraima to assess the crisis. The government declared a health emergency in the area and announced a series of measures, including 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 came to light only now, and, of course, fake newsFake news soon began circulating to divert attention from former President Jair Bolsonaro's responsibility. Contrary to facts and images, he labeled the situation a "left-wing farce."
O ISA summarized below, in a question-and-answer text, 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 combat misinformation.
Can what is happening in the Yanomami Indigenous Land be considered genocide?
A Law 2.889 / 1956 states that genocide is characterized by the "intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group" through acts such as: "killing members of the group; causing serious harm to the physical or mental integrity of members of the group; intentionally subjecting the group to conditions of existence capable of causing its total or partial physical destruction; adopting measures aimed at preventing births within the group; forcibly transferring children of the group to another group." The definition follows international law.
Legal experts interviewed by the press in recent days say there is evidence that the Bolsonaro administration committed the crime in the Yanomami Indigenous Territory, but only a trial in Brazilian or international courts will be able to confirm this.
On Monday (30), Supreme Federal Court (STF) Minister 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 confidential.
Last week, the Minister of Justice, Flávio Dino, had already ordered the Federal Police (PF) to 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 “Haximu Massacre,” is the only case of genocide confirmed by the Brazilian justice system.
What are the reasons for the health crisis in the Yanomami Indigenous Land?
The reasons for the crisis, which have worsened over the last five years, are the dismantling of indigenous health care and the invasion of mining, which has caused a series of health, environmental, sociocultural, and economic impacts on the communities.
It's not true that the root of the situation is the Indigenous people's alleged inability to produce. On the contrary, with their lands 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 has reported that there are refugees from that country among the unassisted people.
It's also not true that the Yanomami crisis is common to other indigenous populations at this time. There are other Indigenous Territories experiencing similar problems, but not on the same scale or for the same reasons.
What is the relationship between illegal mining, the spread of disease and malnutrition among the Yanomami?
Mining is directly responsible for a series of serious problems among indigenous peoples. In the case of the Yanomami, there is a proven link between the explosion in activity and the increase in cases of infectious diseases, such as influenza and pneumonia.
The association between the devastation caused by illegal mining and the spread of malaria is also unequivocal, facilitated by the multiplication of invaders and craters with stagnant water, the result of the activity and conducive to the proliferation of mosquitoes that transmit the disease.
Due to reasonably recent contact and relative isolation, Indigenous people have fewer immune defenses against diseases common among non-Indigenous people.
The occupation of the territory, the destruction of the forest, and the contamination of water bodies caused by mining make it difficult to maintain and open fields, hunt, fish, and gather fruit, the main sources of food for the communities.
Some of them are also lured. Especially vulnerable to false promises of prosperity, young people are given weapons and food to work or ally with the invaders. Women are abused and sexually exploited. The resurgence of violence creates a climate of permanent tension. Residents are besieged in their own villages.
The entire situation is exacerbated by the dismantling of assistance provided to Indigenous people. Furthermore, invaders have taken over part of the service infrastructure, such as airstrips and health clinics. The violence of mining hinders the presence of medical teams and the distribution of medicine and food.
Without food and medical care, the condition of the sick worsens. Because the Indigenous economy depends on family labor, traditional subsistence activities become unviable with people permanently ill or working in the mines, a vicious cycle of hunger, physical weakness, and scarcity.
How widespread is the health crisis in Yanomami Land?
According to data from the Ministry of Health obtained by the agency sumauma, 570 children under five years of age died from preventable diseases in the Yanomami Indigenous Territory between 2019 and 2022, a 29% increase 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.
Around 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 Public agency. “The nutritional status of Yanomami children is really very poor, only comparable to data from children in Sub-Saharan Africa,” said doctor Paulo Basta, from Fiocruz. agency.
Between 2020 and 2021 alone, the Yanomami Indigenous Territory 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 approximately 30 people.
It is important to note that the Yanomami IT is the largest in the country, with approximately 96 thousand km2 (surpassing the size of Portugal), and there are differences between the 370 communities. The regions furthest from the invasions have more favorable sanitary conditions, although the precariousness of health care impacts the entire territory.
What has happened to Yanomami health services in recent years?
Indigenous health care was dismantled by the Bolsonaro administration, despite its longstanding deficiencies. The Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated and exposed the situation.
In the Yanomami case, poor resource management and political manipulation, with the appointment of people without knowledge or experience to important positions, created a situation of disorganization, shortages of equipment, labor, medicines, and other supplies.
Indigenous people e Health professionals reported the closure or abandonment of health centers and the reduction in services at those that remained open. The problem was documented by the report Yanomami Under Attack, published by the Hutukara Yanomami Association and the Wanasseduume Ye'kwana Association.
Audits by the federal administration itself confirmed several flaws in the Yanomami Special Indigenous Health District (DSEI-Y): outdated health indicators; failure to meet work hours and service targets; delivery of medications close to their expiration date; transportation by aircraft without flight authorization, among others. The reports were ignored by the government.
In 2022 the The Ministry of Health has failed to provide chloroquine to treat malaria cases among indigenous people in the Amazon.. The Bolsonaro government recommended the drug to treat Covid-19 and even distributed it for this purpose among the Yanomami, despite the World Health Organization (WHO) and scientists rejecting this use.
The Federal Public Ministry (MPF) and the Federal Police are investigating possible fraud in the purchase of medicines for the Yanomami. Some of the medicines would have ended up in mines within the indigenous territory itself.
In fact, the health crisis is even worse because of underreporting and the data blackout of recent years. For example, 90% of Yanomami children were monitored by DSEI-Y in 2019, but the number dropped to 75% in 2022. Official statistics indicate an improvement in malnutrition records, but the opposite occurred, simply because the number of children monitored fell. At the beginning of Bolsonaro's administration, it was already known that the situation was dire, and yet surveillance was reduced.
When exactly did the health crisis in the Yanomami Indigenous Territory begin? Has it only just become public?
There's no doubt that the situation worsened in 2018 and 2019, with the elections and the start of the Bolsonaro administration, although there were already problems with assistance and invaders in the area. Bolsonaro and his allies' anti-environmental rhetoric and the dismantling of oversight agencies encouraged the illegal occupation of protected areas and led to successive record deforestation. The Yanomami territory was one of the most affected.
When indigenous people began monitoring the effects of mining in 2018, 1,2 hectares had already been deforested. Between 2019 and 2022, an additional 3,2 hectares were devastated, a 309% increase over the period. Last year alone, forest destruction jumped 54%. in relation to 2021 (see chart above). One hectare corresponds more or less to a football field.
The spread of malaria had been gradually increasing over the past decade, but was considered under control until it took a leap forward five years ago, following the evolution of the devastation. The number of cases doubled between 2018 and 2021, rising from around 10 to more than 20 per year, an unprecedented level. (see chart below).
It is not true, therefore, that the situation has been the same for 30 years, although the Yanomami have already experienced serious crises, mainly with the intensification of contact with non-indigenous people and the first major wave of mining in the 1970s and 1980s. Health professionals and indigenous leaders reaffirm that the situation has never been so serious during this period.
Many people had the impression that the crisis only became public now because news about it reached an unprecedented audience, a result of the repercussions of the visit of the newly inaugurated President Lula and the emergency measures taken by his government.
Who is responsible for the Yanomami health crisis?
Notoriously anti-indigenous, Bolsonaro was the first president of the Republic since the Redemocratization to not demarcate “a single centimeter” of Indigenous Territories, as he promised during his campaign.
Throughout his administration, he encouraged environmental crime and its regularization, especially illegal mining in Indigenous Territories. He also promoted an unprecedented administrative dismantling of the National Foundation for Indigenous Peoples (FUNAI) and IBAMA, the agencies responsible for overseeing these areas.
All of this resulted, starting in 2019, in a wave of invasions of protected areas and successive deforestation records in about 15 years. The Yanomami Indigenous Territory was one of the most affected.
Indigenous health also suffered from the Bolsonaro administration's dismantling of public policies. Existing deficiencies have worsened.
Military and security forces also reduced oversight and often refused to support operations to remove invaders and protect villages.
The entire situation was reported to federal agencies, the Public Prosecutor's Office, the press and on social media by the Yanomami and Ye'kwana District Health Council (Considisi-Y), the Hutukara Yanomami Association, the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (Apib) and the ISA. The warnings were ignored, however. At least 21 official letters about the case were ignored by various institutions in just two years, the The Intercept Brazil.
The Bolsonaro government has failed to comply with most of the decisions made by the Supreme Federal Court and the Federal Court of Roraima., starting in 2020, to guarantee care for indigenous people during the Covid-19 pandemic, such as ensuring vaccination, the presence of health professionals, the sending of medicines, supplies and basic food baskets and the implementation of sanitary barriers.
The order to isolate and contain the miners in the Yanomami Indigenous Territory was also ignored. The same happened with decisions by the Supreme Federal Court and the Federal Court requiring the Union to formulate and execute a plan to remove the invaders. A deliberation 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, former President Jair Bolsonaro and former Vice President Hamilton Mourão, then coordinator of the National Amazon Council and responsible for coordinating environmental oversight efforts in the region during the last administration, bear responsibility for the tragedy, to varying degrees and in varying degrees. The respective leaders, in the former administration, of Funai (National Agency for the Environment), Ibama (Brazilian Institute of Environment), the Federal Police (Federal Police), and the Ministries of Health, Justice, Defense, and the Environment, among others identified by a proper investigation, may also be held responsible.
What measures has the government taken so far to address the health crisis in the Yanomami Indigenous Territory?
Also on the 20th, the federal government declared a Public Health Emergency of National Concern in the Yanomami Indigenous Territory. This situation demands the urgent implementation of measures to prevent, control, and contain risks, damage, and harm to public health, in situations that may be epidemiological (outbreaks and epidemics), disasters, or lack of assistance to the population. The latter is the case with the Yanomami.
The federal government also announced the dispatch of medical teams to provide emergency assistance and diagnose the situation, in addition to the installation of a field hospital in Boa Vista and a Public Health Emergency Operations Center (COE), which will coordinate actions against the crisis and will be managed by Sesai.
A National Coordination Committee to Address the Lack of Health Care for the Populations in Yanomami Territory was also created. This committee will discuss the measures to be adopted, support coordination between the branches of government and the states, and present an action plan within 45 days. The committee's members include the Ministries of Indigenous Peoples, Health, Defense, Justice, Development and Social Assistance, Family and Hunger Alleviation, and Management and Innovation in Public Services.
On the 23rd, a team from the SUS National Force was also sent to Roraima. At least a thousand patients have already been rushed out of the area, after the declaration of a state of emergency.
The government is planning a major operation to remove the miners. There is no date for the operation yet, but on Monday (30), in a meeting with several ministers, President Lula called for haste in blocking the airspace and the main rivers that cross the area, with the aim of strangling the mining logistics. Approximately 56 tons of food and medicine have already been sent to the Yanomami Indigenous Territory, according to the Brazilian Air Force (FAB).
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