In addition, the government of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva dismissed 43 soldiers from the National Foundation of Indigenous Peoples (FUNAI), who had been appointed under the previous government of Jair Bolsonaro and are suspected of failing to protect indigenous peoples’ rights.

” I decided yesterday to launch a new police investigation into a possible genocide in this Yanomami area. We believe there is very strong evidence that these tribal peoples are being denied food and health care. »

The probe, which targets officials and health sector officials in this indigenous territory, will also focus on allegations of environmental crimes and misappropriation of public resources.

The Ministry of Health announced last week that 99 children under the age of five had died in this remote area in the middle of the jungle in 2022.

Causes of death include pneumonia, diarrhea and gastroenteritis, probably of infectious origin, as well as bleeding or severe malnutrition.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, invested on Jan. 1, traveled Saturday to Boa Vista in the state of Roraima in the north of the country, where part of the Yanomami territory is located.

What I saw shook mehe had hinted and conjured up scenes inhuman report on his visit.

About 30,400 indigenous people live in the Yanomami areas, which not only stretch across the states of Roraima and Amazonas, but also across parts of neighboring Venezuela.

Thousands of underground gold diggers

The population of these areas, which are considered untouchable and where all mining is forbidden, are struggling to feed themselves due to the destruction of the rainforest where they normally find their livelihood.

According to Yanomami chiefs, about 20,000 illegal gold miners have invaded their territory, killing indigenous people, sexually abusing teenage women and girls, and polluting their rivers with the mercury that separates gold from sediment.

authorities also found a very precarious care structure on Yanomami land, the justice minister said.

The announcement of the dismissal of 43 FUNAI soldiers was published in the Official Gazette late Monday. Minister for Indigenous Peoples Sonia Guajajara, a department created by the left-wing government, welcomed this.

These men, named by Marcelo Xavier, a federal police officer who chaired FUNAI in 2019-20 and was himself appointed by Bolsonaro, had a completely opposite orientation Protection of indigenous rights, she accused.