Vice President Hamilton Mourão said this Thursday (25th) that the Federal Police and the Navy will act in the Madeira River region, where there is a strong presence of garimpeiros.
In recent days, hundreds of dredging rafts have been identified in a gold rush on the river, an important tributary of the Amazon.
“A PF [Polícia Federal] and the Navy are already preparing to act,” said the vice president at the Planalto Palace. According to Mourão, the Navy will identify illegal vessels and seize them.
The MPF (Federal Public Ministry) recommended on Wednesday (24) to federal and state agencies and autarchies a coordinated action to repress and dismantle illegal mining in the region. The deadline is 30 days.
Mourão gave two hypotheses for this phenomenon at the site: the emergence of gold in this new region or joint action with drug trafficking.
“We have had several reports that drug trafficking there, these gangs that act here in the Center-South of the country, in order to protect their routes, have gone up there,” he said.
“And one of the ways to [essas quadrilhas] to maintain themselves is to support actions of this nature. Even because if gold is illegally extracted, it is an asset that they can exchange for drugs.”
The miners usually work near the municipality of Humaitá, where there has been an increase in illegal gold extraction. But now the dredging rafts have sailed below that area — they were last seen some 650 kilometers away in Autazes, a municipality southeast of Manaus.
In its recommendation, the Public Ministry demands measures from the Army, through the Amazon Military Command; the Superintendence of the Federal Police in Amazonas; the Itacoatiara River Agency, the Navy unit in charge of the Madeira River; from Ipaam (Institute for Environmental Protection of Amazonas), from the presidency of Ibama (Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources) and from the superintendence of the ANM (National Mining Agency) in Amazonas.
“Given the scale of the ‘garimpeiro invasion’, the efficient repression of the activity necessarily requires coordinated efforts from different government agencies, each within its attributions, with a prominent role in the repressive and environmental policing activity of the bodies that make up Sisnama (System Environment), Ibama, at the federal level, and Ipaam, at the state level”, states an excerpt of the recommendation.
“The coordinated action between all these actors would provide a quick and efficient response to the illegal activity taking place in the municipality of Autazes, with a prominent and coordinating role to be played by environmental agencies, holders of special expertise in combating environmental crimes in the Amazon” , says yet.
The bodies must, according to the MPF, identify and fine the irregular mining operations in operation or with signs of operation in the Madeira chute or tributaries, in addition to adopting measures so that illegal activities are interrupted. If necessary, the recommendation says, the “instruments of crime” must be destroyed.
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