Terra Yanomami gets limited medical aid due to delay in payments from the Ministry of Health

Due to delays in payment by the Ministry of Health, the air transport company Voare suspended this Monday (1st) all regular flights to serve the Yanomami Special Indigenous Sanitary District (DSEI). The interruption puts at risk the health of about 28,000 indigenous people between the states of Roraima and Amazonas.

“As of today, we are only dealing with cases of aerial ICU”, says the owner of the company, Renildo Lima.

With 9.6 million hectares (equivalent to Santa Catarina), the Yanomami Indigenous Land is the largest in the country. Almost all communities are only accessible by air. On average, Voare made 30 daily flights, by plane and helicopter, and transported around 95 people, including nurses, doctors and patients, in addition to supplies such as vaccines. Operations are carried out through 120 airstrips.

Voare charges a debt of BRL 3.9 million, referring to 2019, and another BRL 2 million, for services rendered this year. In the most recent case, the total hours predicted for six months were used in three months by Dsei, which would make payment even more difficult, reports the company.

The Ministry of Health informed that it will pay by Friday (5) the old debt of R$ 3.9 million and denied delay in the payment of this year’s contract.

The interruption of flights comes at a time when Yanomami health is facing a serious crisis, with an increase in cases of child malnutrition and falciparum malaria, the most lethal. Health officials have reported a lack of working conditions, medication and health problems related to the explosion in the presence of miners, spurred by the increase in the price of gold and by promises of regularization by the Jair Bolsonaro (non-party) government.

“Since 2018, contracts with public bidding and valid for five years have ended. We serve through emergency bidding every six months. As it is emergency, there is not the amount of resources allocated to companies and to the Dsei”, he says the owner of Voare.

“Six months ago, there was a tender at the national level, for all the Six, but the companies were never called,” he said. “We don’t understand why companies are not called to end the problem of [contrato] emergency,” he added.

Lima claims that he sent a letter 15 days ago to Sesai (Special Secretariat for Indigenous Health) warning that the company would stop flying due to lack of payment.

“Since there is no bidding process, we have to humiliate ourselves for them to pay. We have to go to all the inspection bodies, go through all the criteria”, he says. “We don’t have legal certainty to pay.”

Wanted by sheet, the Dsei Yanomami informed, through the coordination, that the air service continues to be provided, “although with some delays”, and that it will meet with Voare. The company, however, told the report that it only carried out two emergency flights on Monday. Dsei officials confirmed the stoppage of flights, and some were unable to return from fieldwork on the scheduled day.

The report was updated on Tuesday night (2) with information from the Ministry of Health sent after the original publication.