The Army denied a request by Senator Humberto Costa (PT-PE) for logistical support so that the delegation of parliamentarians in Roraima could visit the Yanomami indigenous lands.
The delegation, made up of senators and federal deputies, went to the state to investigate recent complaints made by indigenous people against miners. The expectation was that its members could visit the village of Aracaçá, which is only accessible by plane or helicopter and is close to the military base of Surucucu.
Therefore, the senator sent a letter to the army commander, General Marco Antônio Freire Gomes, on May 5th.
“I plead for support to Your Excellency in order to provide logistical support for the internal displacement of some members of the entourage, approximately 15 people, from Boa Vista to the district of Surucucus, on May 12, so that they fulfill the task of investigating that indigenist situation. , to which the nation now turns its eyes”, says the text, to which the report had access.
The answer was given by General Francisco Humberto Montenegro Junior, only last Wednesday (11), when the parliamentarians were already in Boa Vista. “It will not be possible to provide support, in view of the restriction of air resources available in the Amazon region”, states the negative.
Questioned by Sheet about what these restrictions would be, the military responded that “the demand was analyzed and it was found that the only way to safely lead parliamentarians to the District of Surucuru would be by air. Unfortunately, the Brazilian Army was not able to provide the support due to the restriction of air resources available in the Amazon region, on the requested date”.
Earlier, on the 4th, the delegation also asked the Senate president, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), to ask the Brazilian Air Force (FAB) for logistical support both for the displacement from BrasÃlia to Boa Vista, as well as from the city to village.
Pacheco, however, did not put the letter to a vote or forward it to the Presidency of the Republic to be passed on to the Ministry of Defense. The report sought him out, but got no response.
Thus, the entourage — composed of Senators Humberto Costa, Telmario Mota (Republicans-RR), Chico Rodrigues (União Brasil-RR), Leila Barros (PDT-DF) and Elizane Gama (PDT-MA), by federal deputy Joenia Wapichana ( Rede-RR) and by deputy José Ricardo (PT-AM) — only works in Boa Vista.
The parliamentarians have already met with indigenous leaders, members of institutions such as Funai (National Indian Foundation) and Ibama (Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources), as well as representatives of the Federal Police and the Public Ministry.
The delegation was a response to the growing tension between illegal mining and the Yanomami this year. According to reports heard by the reporter on condition of anonymity, indigenous leaders, Funai employees and members of NGOs have been threatened and fear that the violence will grow even more.
The whereabouts of the Yanomami of Aracaçá became a police case since the community was found burned and empty, after Condisi-YY (District Council for Yanomami and Ye’kwana Indigenous Health) denounced that a 12-year-old girl had been raped and killed by miners. The Federal Police says it has not found evidence of this crime so far.
After the president of Condisi, Júnior Hekurari, stated that the missing had been found, he revealed to the Sheet who claims to have discovered that the indigenous people were co-opted by the miners in the region. “They are in the hands of the garimpo. They are coerced, the prospectors have gotten into their heads,” he said.
Initially, it was thought that the disappearance of the Yanomami was part of a mourning ritual after the death of a relative. It has also been speculated that they could have moved because they were a nomadic people, or that they were even hiding in the forest, as a defense strategy.
Hekurari says that, for now, it is still not possible to be sure who burned the village and what would have been the reason. But he says the possibility that the Yanomami have taken up residence elsewhere is remote. “I’m Yanomami. They didn’t prepare to go elsewhere,” he says, according to what he saw on a visit to the site at the end of last month.
The violence of gold miners against the Yanomami in Roraima is nothing new. Last Thursday night (5), for example, the PF arrested a person convicted of participating in the Haximu massacre, a mining attack that left 12 indigenous people dead in 1993.
In 2021, the region of Palimiú, neighboring Aracaçá, suffered attacks by armed miners. In 2020, a decision by the Federal Regional Court ordered the federal government to remove illegal mining from Yanomami land in Roraima, which has not yet happened.
