The GSI (Institutional Security Office) of the Presidency indicated approval for gold mining in untouched indigenous lands in the Amazon in the event of approval of a new law that allows mining in these territories.
On the 9th, the Chamber of Deputies approved urgently a vote on a bill presented by the Jair Bolsonaro government (PL), which allows mining in indigenous lands.
The vote is scheduled for April and runs over House committees. The president of the House, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), the centrão and Bolsonaro sponsor the idea.
The GSI statement appears in a document sent by the minister, General Augusto Heleno, to the Federal Supreme Court (STF) on February 22. Two actions –by the PV and Rede Sustentabilidade– contest seven acts by the general that allowed the advance of mining in one of the most preserved regions of the Amazon, on the border with Colombia and Venezuela.
The existence of the acts was revealed by the sheet. One of the authorizations allowed the exploitation of niobium and tantalum, in addition to gold.
After the reports, the actions were filed with the STF and began to be processed, with a request for an explanation sent to the GSI by the rapporteur, Minister Nunes Marques. Faced with the revelation made by the newspaper and the later confirmation by Funai (Fundação Nacional do Índio) that the authorizations passed through two indigenous lands, Heleno was forced to back down and canceled the acts themselves.
A document produced on December 23 by the Secretary of Defense and National Security Affairs of the GSI, as a result of the reports, proposed the annulment of each of Heleno’s seven acts.
The document took into account an analysis carried out by Funai, at the request of the GSI, which concluded that research for gold, niobium and tantalum would take place in two indigenous lands in the extreme northwest of the Amazon, in the region known as Cabeça do Cachorro.
It was on the basis of this document that Heleno revoked his own acts, referring to an exploration in areas of 12,700 hectares in the Amazon. The gateway to Cabeça do Cachorro is São Gabriel da Cachoeira, the most indigenous city in Brazil.
The GSI minister is responsible for these authorizations as he is the executive secretary of the National Defense Council. As the areas are on the border, it is up to the council to issue or not the so-called prior assent. The processes are instructed by the ANM (National Mining Agency).
“The act deserves to be revoked, given the impossibility of mineral exploration in indigenous lands”, the GSI scored six of Heleno’s seven acts that validated the exploration of gold. The seventh act also included exploitation on indigenous land, and should be annulled for having ignored information from Funai and ICMBio (Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation), according to the GSI.
The document from the Presidency body then makes reservations about the annulment of these acts: “The act deserves to be annulled, given the impossibility of mineral exploration in indigenous land, related to the ANM process, until the advent of specific legislation, in view of the §1, of article 176, of the Federal Constitution.”
This is one of the points of the Constitution that the bill with urgent procedure in the Chamber wants to regulate.
The paragraph states that the exploration of mining in a border strip or indigenous lands must follow specific conditions established by law.
The project also establishes rules on how Congress would authorize mining projects on indigenous lands, on consultation with affected communities and on participation in the results of activities, within the provisions of the Constitution in a second point.
As there is no law regulating these points, mining on indigenous lands is prohibited.
By allowing the advance of mining in the Cabeça do Cachorro region, an unprecedented act in at least ten years, Heleno violated the provisions of the Constitution, by having authorized exploration in indigenous lands.
One of the reports published by sheet showed, on December 17, that five of the seven fronts authorized by the general were within the stretch of the Rio Negro that cuts through the Middle Rio Negro 1 and Middle Rio Negro 2 lands. The areas released were on islands or in the river’s own waters.
In both spaces live 3,300 indigenous people, according to a database updated by ISA (Instituto Socioambiental). They are from the Arapaso, Baniwa, Baré, Dâw, Desana, Koripako, Mirity-Tapuya, Pira-Tapuya, Tariana, Tukano and Yuhupde ethnicities.
Faced with the revelation, the GSI decided to consult Funai, “as a matter of urgency”, about the indications that the authorized areas were part of indigenous lands.
Regarding six cases, “Funai reported that they are located along the Rio Negro and, according to satellite images, very close to or even on river islands of that river”, said the GSI in the document sent to the STF.
“According to the decree that ratified the demarcation of the Middle Rio Negro 1 land, any islands that might exist would belong to that land,” said Funai, according to the GSI document.
A seventh process, which released research for gold, niobium and tantalum in an area adjacent to the Pico da Neblina National Park, “is confining to the area under demarcation process”, according to Funai’s conclusion sent to the GSI.
The land in question is Cué-Cué/Marabitanas, with 1,800 indigenous people, from nine ethnic groups, according to ISA: Arapaso, Baniwa, Baré, Desana, Koripako, Pira-Tapuya, Tariana, Tukano and Warkena.
Taking into account a radius of influence of ten kilometers, as provided for in a 2015 interministerial decree, the mining enterprise would impact two other indigenous lands (Balaio and Médio Rio Negro 2), according to Funai.
ICMBio informed the GSI, also after the publication of the reports, that two mining processes were in the “buffer zone projection” of Pico da Neblina Park. Thus, the ANM should consult the agency before allowing exploration, according to ICMBio.
THE sheet tried to obtain a copy of both the GSI document and the Funai document, but the bodies refused to provide it, including via LAI (Access to Information Law). The information became available from the moment the GSI document was sent to the STF.
The bill that allows mining on indigenous lands, without listening to the indigenous themselves, is opposed by the main associations representing these communities; of the main agribusiness companies, banks, universities and civil society; of the main mining companies; and the CNDH (National Council for Human Rights).
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