In view of the hardship and misery of the indigenous Yanomami people, Brazil’s new government has dismissed 54 civil servants from the competent authority (Funai) and the Ministry of Health. Many of those fired were military personnel appointed during the reign of ex-president Jair Bolsonaro, who was ousted from office. This emerged yesterday from a statement by the newly created Ministry for Indigenous Affairs.
As Bolsonaro’s successor, left-wing politician Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has been back in office in South America’s largest country since the turn of the year. The agency was accused in the statement of not having fulfilled its most important task of guaranteeing the rights of the indigenous population. Instead, she turned into an “enemy of the indigenous people”.
Measures against malnutrition needed
Lula announced new policies and measures to combat malnutrition after visiting the Yanomami people in Brazil’s far north over the weekend. “It’s inhuman what I saw,” he said. According to a report by the Agencia Brasil news agency, 570 Yanomami children have died as a result of malnutrition in recent years.
Covering almost ten million hectares in the states of Roraima and Amazonas, the territory of the Yanomami is one of the largest protected areas for indigenous peoples in Brazil. More than 30,000 Yanomami live there. Again and again they are exposed to dangers, for example from illegal gold diggers. Bolsonaro advocated the exploitation of the Amazon and wanted to allow gold mining in indigenous areas. The gold diggers use mercury to extract gold and pollute the water in the process.
