Brazil declared a state of emergency after more than 500 minors died in an indigenous community

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Lula government is considering investigating “genocide” by Bolsonaro’s previous cabinet as malnutrition and disease decimated an ethnic group under national protection in a few years

Sin through negligence has cost the Brazilian government the deaths of more than 500 indigenous minors in the past four years. This is confirmed by the evidence gathered by President Lula da Silva’s cabinet on the devastation wrought by hunger and disease in the Yanomami community, despite being under a national protection plan. All of them could serve the new executive to indict the previous president, Jair Bolsonaro, on a case of “genocide”.

Lula this Wednesday declared a state of emergency of “national concern” in the region occupied by this ethnic group. A coordination committee has also been set up to deal with the crisis, which will speed up the recruitment of doctors in the border town of Roraima, bordering Venezuelan territory, where a health service is said to already exist as it was located in an area protected by the Venezuelan government . nation.

Nearly 30,000 Yanomami members are at risk due to the lack of attention and the exploitation of natural resources in this strip of the north of the country (especially mercury, which has contaminated much of the region). An investigation is looking for the political leaders who failed to implement the corresponding relief plan to prevent malnutrition and curable diseases plaguing the community. More than a thousand people have already faced serious health crises.

Organizations defending indigenous peoples had denounced the humanitarian drama that has been unfolding in the area for three years. But only since last week, when the president and his cabinet visited the area, has Brazil known the full extent of the health and social emergency facing its residents. At least 570 children have died from mercury contamination, malnutrition and starvation. 99 of them died last year.

The Ministry of Indigenous Peoples estimates that all of these minors, between the ages of one and five, have lost their lives due to respiratory and digestive problems caused by the spread of illegal mining in the region. The waste and the use of toxic products affect the rivers and devastate the jungle. They also suffer from malaria. Lula’s government now wants to speed up the construction of health centers as only air force health teams have arrived on site due to the forested conditions.

The federal police has launched an investigation to identify those responsible for the “mismanagement” of the problems of the largest ancestral reserve, whose territory covers almost 10 million hectares. Justice Minister Flávio Dino is leading the legal process to clarify the actions and omissions that may have been committed by former executive branch officials, as well as the existence of environmental crimes and misuse of public funds.

During Bolsonaro’s tenure, complaints about the situation of this community were considered “a farce on the left”. His cabinet slashed the budgets of departments fighting environmental crimes and defended the exploitation of minerals and timber on indigenous reservations.

The former president has previously been linked to genocide charges. Several indigenous peoples filed a complaint in 2019 for crimes against humanity and in 2021 denounced the damage caused by Bolsonaro’s policies. “What we lived with him was an explicit refusal to delineate new lands. At the same time, bills, decrees and ordinances tried to legalize illegal activities in indigenous lands, leaving us without legal protection,” said Luiz Eloy Terena, the representative of the indigenous people at the time.

Brazil has about 850,000 indigenous people spread over 300 communities. The most mistreated groups are the Munduruki people, affected by invasions of their territory and contagion; the Yanomami whose land has been devastated by mining; the Tikuna and Guarani-Mbya, decimated by disease; and finally the Kaingang and Guarani Kaiowá, targets of attacks and assassinations committed repeatedly to deprive them of their property.

Source: La Verdad

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