The Ministry of Health announced last week the death in this isolated territory in the middle of the virgin forest in 2022 of 99 children under the age of five. President Lula visited the territory.
Brazilian police have opened an investigation for “genocide” after the publication of official data reporting the death in 2022 of a hundred children under the age of five in the Yanomami indigenous territory, announced this Tuesday the Minister of Justice.
“I decided yesterday to open a new police investigation into a possible genocide” in this territory, declared Minister Flavio Dino to CNN Brazil.
“We consider that there are very strong indications of a denial of food and health assistance to these indigenous populations,” he added.
“Inhuman” scenes
The investigation, which targets public officials and health sector officials in the indigenous territory, will also focus on allegations of environmental crimes and misappropriation of public resources.
The Ministry of Health announced last week the death in this isolated territory in the middle of the virgin forest in 2022 of 99 children under the age of five. Among the causes of death, pneumonia, diarrhea and gastroenteritis, probably of infectious origin, as well as haemorrhage or severe malnutrition.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, invested on January 1, went to Boa Vista on Saturday, in the state of Roraima, in the north of the country, where part of the Yanomami territory is located.
“What I saw shook me,” he said, referring to “inhuman” scenes when reporting on his visit.
Lands meant to be inviolable
Some 30,400 indigenous people live in Yanomami lands, straddling the Roraima and Amazonas states, but also in part of neighboring Venezuela.
The populations of these lands, supposed to be inviolable and where all mining is prohibited, are facing difficulties in feeding themselves due to the destruction of the tropical forest where they normally find their means of subsistence.
According to Yanomami chiefs, some 20,000 illegal gold diggers have invaded their territory, killing natives, sexually abusing women and teenage girls and contaminating their rivers with the mercury that separates gold from sediment.
Authorities found “a very precarious care structure” on Yanomami land, the justice minister said.
