The Secretary of Indigenous Health of Brazil, Ricardo Weibe Tapeba, has announced the measures adopted by the Government of Brazil to contain the humanitarian crisis of the Yanomami community, indicating that the improvement of the indigenous people «depends on the miners leaving» the region.
«We believe that it will only be possible to ensure the universalization of indigenous health for the Yanomami people with the withdrawal of the gold miners to the communities and our professionals,» explained Tapeba, as reported by the newspaper ‘Folha de Sao Paulo’.
«We have been going on for almost a month with our urgent and emergency actions coordinated by the federal government to save lives, fighting what we call the ongoing genocide project of the Yanomami people,» he stressed.
Health authorities in the Yanomami and Boa Vista indigenous lands, in the Brazilian province of Roraima, have installed a field hospital and the idea is to place two more to alleviate the high demand of patients who need to be transported by plane from the indigenous area to the capital.
In addition, Tapeba has indicated that the coordinators of the 34 indigenous districts, appointed by former president Jair Bolsonaro, will be replaced, due to poor management and lack of assistance in recent years, according to ‘O Globo’.
He has also stated that he is «sure that many people will be arrested» for responsibilities in the humanitarian crisis, although he did not give more details, alleging that an investigation is underway.
«What we live in (…) Yanomami in the last years has been a real political apparatus, real political oligarchies that have the power here», he has denounced, indicating that the Ministry of Health has evidence of a high rate of irregularities in a series of contracts.
The Brazilian Minister of Justice, Flávio Dino, announced at the end of January that the Federal Police will investigate the possible omission on the part of public officials – at all levels – in containing the humanitarian crisis affecting the Yanomami indigenous community, days after visiting the area together with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who described the situation as «genocide».
The Justice Minister’s statements were in line with those expressed days before by President Lula da Silva after his visit to Roraima, where he noted the plight of this indigenous community. «More than a humanitarian crisis what I saw was (…) a premeditated crime against the Yanomami, committed by a government insensitive to the suffering of the Brazilian people», he said.
The Ministry of Indigenous Peoples reported this week that a hundred children between one and four years of age of the Yanomami community died from malnutrition, pneumonia and diarrhea as a consequence of the advance of illegal mining, responsible for the contamination of rivers and fields on which this community lives. There has also been a serious increase in malaria cases in the last year.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
