The Vice President of the Republic, Hamilton Mourão (PRTB), defended an operation carried out over the weekend that destroyed vessels used for illegal mining on the Madeira River.
“The operation was carried out immediately. It had to be done the way it was. What is illegal must have the equipment seized and destroyed,” said Mourão this Monday morning (29).
In recent days, hundreds of illegal ferries have concentrated on a stretch of the Madeira, an important tributary of the Amazon River, in Autazes (distant 110 km from Manaus in a straight line).
Part of the vessels seized and burned on Saturday (27) by the PF (Federal Police), which triggered the Uiara operation, was abandoned.
Navy and Ibama (Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources) accompanied the action.
“The garimpo has already been properly dispersed, but it has to keep constant surveillance, because there is gold there. Without surveillance, people come back,” said Mourão.
After the operation, Minister Anderson Torres (Justice) went to social media and stated that the ministry acted “immediately” against the crime.
The images reverberated, which caused groups of miners to disperse to escape the inspection that was announced last Thursday (25) by Mourão.
Illegal mining and mining in the Amazon has gained new momentum since 2019, spurred on by President Jair Bolsonaro’s (non-party) promises to legalize and by the rise in the price of gold.
Bolsonaro has already complained about the destruction of machinery during environmental inspections, a measure provided for in current legislation.
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