General Augusto Heleno, minister of the GSI (Institutional Security Office), authorized a businessman to mine diamonds in an area of 9,999.63 hectares in Roraima, on the border with Guyana.
The authorization includes an expressive portion of an agrarian reform settlement of 3,178 hectares, destined to 79 families.
Heleno is the executive secretary of the National Defense Council, a collegiate body that advises President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) on matters of defense and sovereignty. The secretary is given the power to say yes or no to mining projects in the border strip, up to 150 kilometers wide.
A leaf revealed that the GSI minister has approved the advance of gold mining in one of the most preserved regions of the Amazon, in the extreme northwest of the Amazon.
The place, where the municipality of São Gabriel da Cachoeira is located, the most indigenous in Brazil, is known as Cabeça do Cachorro. It was the first time, in at least ten years, that this type of authorization had been granted.
The general authorized gold research in a stretch of the Rio Negro — both on islands and in waters — that divides two virtually untouched indigenous lands, where indigenous people of 11 ethnic groups live.
Another area advances into the territory of the Union, attached to the Pico da Neblina National Park. For this area, the minister also authorized prospecting for niobium and tantalum.
Heleno’s willingness to allow the advance of prospecting in the Amazon includes the guarantee of exploration of an area for a settlement project by Incra (National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform).
On July 1, 2021, the minister authorized businessman Antônio João Abdalla Filho to research diamonds in the border strip in Roraima, in an area of the municipalities of Bonfim and Cantá.
The so-called prior consent, referring to an area of 9,999.63 hectares, was based on a process by the ANM (National Mining Agency).
Abdalla Filho works on different fronts. He is a partner in mining, cement, real estate, helicopter and cattle raising companies, among others.
GSI documents referring to Heleno’s decision validating the diamond research show that the request to explore the ore included a portion of the Jacamim settlement.
The settlement has an area overlapping with the Malacacheta indigenous land, according to the same documents. More than a thousand Wapishana indigenous people live on the land. The Wapishana are also in the Jacamim indigenous land, in the same region.
In the settlement of the same name, Jacamim, 70 families live, with a capacity for 79, according to an Incra database. The project was created in 2002.
The diamond research area includes a slice of the settlement and is adjacent to the Malacacheta indigenous land. “Incra was in favor of mineral research”, says the GSI in a document that marked Heleno’s approval for the project.
Incra’s analysis report cited in the GSI document is from October 23, 2019.
“A DF [Divisão de Ordenamento da Estrutura Fundiária] ratified that there is an overlap between the area claimed for research and the settlement project. DD [Divisão de Desenvolvimento] was in favor of the research since it is just research and not mining”, cites the report.
In February and May 2021, the GSI consulted Incra about the overlapping of the area claimed for diamond research with the area of the Jacamim settlement. In response, the agency claims that there is “a need for prior authorization to enter the domain of Incra”.
The GSI concluded that prior consent for diamond research is appropriate, with the condition that there is prior authorization from Incra for entry into the area of the rural settlement. This can include “conditions and considerations for mineral use and exploration”, according to Heleno’s folder.
In a statement, Incra said to leaf that “there is no legal impediment to authorization of exploration and mining exploration in agrarian reform settlement”.
“Only at the stage of the environmental licensing process, it will be up to the institute to express its opinion on possible compensation measures related to the mining activity”, says the agency.
Incra also stated that it was not consulted about diamond research in the entire 9,999.63-hectare area.
The ANM also said, in a note, that there is no legal impediment to the exploration of minerals in rural settlements. Neither Incra nor the ANM answered whether the settled families were consulted about diamond exploration and whether they have any participation in the project.
Without seeing any legal impediment, the minister authorized the research in the entire required area. The expense expected by the businessman, at this stage, is R$ 3.86 million.
Abdalla Filho had already obtained other prior consents from the GSI, in 2013, to research gold and diamonds in 12,817.41 hectares in Roraima, more specifically in the municipalities Amajari and Caracaraí.
From the available information, it is not clear whether these projects were in rural settlements or in the vicinity of indigenous lands.
The report sent questions to the email of a secretary of the businessman, appointed in one of his companies, but there was no response.
The GSI did not respond to inquiries made about the authorization given to Abdalla Filho.
Heleno has been defending the authorizations given to mining projects in the Amazon. The minister said that the acts of prior consent have a legal basis and that the Bolsonaro government will continue to “map our wealth for the good of Brazil and our people.”
Since the beginning of the Bolsonaro government, the minister has already granted 81 authorizations for the exploration of ore in the Amazon. Only in 2021, until the 2nd of this month, there were 45 authorizations, the highest amount in nine years.
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