Brazil’s Minister of Defense, José Múcio, has informed that the Army will be deployed next week in the Brazilian Amazon region to fight against illegal gold mining, which has been denounced by indigenous communities for the damage it causes to their ecosystems and ways of life.
«We know that the origin is illegal gold mining, it is very present and will be dismantled. We are going to confront it and nip it in the bud,» promised the Minister of Defense in an interview for the Bandnews television network.
Múcio specified that air control operations have already started this week and that fighter jets have been used for this purpose. «Any suspicious flight will be diverted and will have to land to be identified,» he said.
This week, Brazilian authorities have dealt the first blow to illegal mining on protected lands after seizing dozens of aircraft used for these activities, which the Yanomami community has been denouncing as the main reason for the humanitarian crisis they have been suffering for years, especially during the mandate of Jair Bolsonaro, whom they accuse of promoting these irregularities.
In recent weeks, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has been promising more and better measures to tackle this problem. For the time being, he has ratified a plan for the expansion of new protected lands for these communities, which, in the absence of the head of state’s signature, had been forgotten by Jair Bolsonaro despite being ready to be implemented.
Last week, during a visit by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to the south of the state of Roraima, in the Brazilian Amazon, the Ministry of Health declared a health emergency in the region after verifying the state of the Yanomami community.
One of the main causes of this situation, according to the government, has been the encouragement and defense given to the illegal extractors of gold and other precious stones, the garimpeiros, who invade and contaminate the lands of these communities and exercise violence against them.
For this reason, the authorities have initiated an investigation into the possible omission of functions within the previous government, which was also reproached for the abandonment to which it relegated these communities during the health crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
The new Ministry of Indigenous Peoples has reported that a hundred children between one and four years of age of the Yanomami community died from malnutrition, pneumonia and diarrhea as a consequence of the advance of illegal mining, responsible for the contamination of rivers and fields on which this community lives. There has also been a serious increase in malaria cases in the last year.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
