The minister of the GSI (Institutional Security Office), Augusto Heleno, canceled this Monday (27) the authorization for seven gold research projects in one of the most preserved areas of the Amazon.
The retreat, made in an act of the National Defense Council, was published in the Official Gazette of the Union. leaf, the minister had endorsed the mining projects in the region of São Gabriel da Cachoeira (AM), the most indigenous city in Brazil, where there are 23 ethnic groups.
The MPF (Federal Public Ministry) in Amazonas has set up an investigation procedure to investigate and inspect the authorizations given by the GSI minister, given the socio-environmental risk of the measures. Members of the MP suspect that the acts sought to prepare the ground for mining on indigenous lands, a proposal defended by President Jair Bolsonaro.
The authorizations were revoked based on manifestations of the ANM (National Mining Agency), Funai (National Indigenous Foundation) and ICMBio (Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation).
“Considering the new technical and legal information, presented directly to the GSI, and which will be studied by the ANM, the head minister of State of the GSI, in his capacity as executive secretary of the National Defense Council, revoked the Prior Assent Acts”, states note from the GSI.
In the same statement, the ministry headed by Heleno recognizes that there are mineral requirement areas “on the limits” of indigenous lands or in a region with demarcation not yet ratified.
Heleno, who works at Planalto Palace and is one of Bolsonaro’s main assistants, is executive secretary of the Defense Council, the body that advises the president on matters of sovereignty and defense. It is up to the GSI minister to give approval or not to mining projects in the border strip, with a width of 150 km.
A research authorization allows “analysis and study activities in the area in which it is intended to work”, according to the ANM. These are the tasks required to define an ore deposit.
The first authorizations for companies and entrepreneurs to search for gold in the region of São Gabriel da Cachoeira were given in 2021, taking into account the survey carried out in the last ten years by the leaf.
The projects would be installed in the extreme northwest of the Amazon, on the border with Colombia and Venezuela. The region, known as Cabeça do Cachorro, is one of the most preserved in the Amazon and one of the last frontiers of full conservation of the biome.
For the entire Amazon, Heleno has authorized 81 mining projects since the beginning of the Bolsonaro government. The minister defended his actions, the day after the publication of the report by the leaf.
According to the minister, “it is legal to authorize the exploration/mining of minerals along the border, including the Amazon”. “Respecting the legislation and the environment, we will continue to map our wealth for the good of Brazil and our people,” he said on Monday (6), in a publication on a social network.
The general’s actions benefited companies with areas embargoed by Ibama (Brazilian Institute for the Environment of Renewable Natural Resources), including a company authorized to search for gold in Cabeça do Cachorro. There was also an endorsement from a prospector who works with suction dredges in riverbeds in the Amazon
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