Two armed attacks by illegal miners over the weekend on the Yanomami Indian Reserve in the Brazilian state of Roraima, in the heart of the Amazon, left five people dead and two injured. This Monday, the wounded, two native Yanomami, were still admitted to Roraima General Hospital in Boa Vista, the state capital, in serious condition but recovering from surgery.
The first attack took place on Saturday in the area of the nature reserve known as Wushu, where a group of miners with live weapons fired on the natives who were taken by surprise. One Yanomami, wounded in the head, died on the spot, and two others, wounded in the abdomen, were taken to the village of Surukuku, where a field hospital had been set up a few weeks earlier, and then airlifted to Boa Vista.
This Sunday there was another serious incident, this time in the area known as “Ouro Mil”, heavily armed prospectors were shot dead by agents of the Federal Traffic Police, PRF and Ibama, the Brazilian Institute of the Environment, as they exited the plane in which they came to watch another secret mine in the local nature reserve. PRF and Ibama agents, also heavily armed, reacted, four miners were killed and the rest fled through the woods.
In this action, the agents discovered the camp they were about to inspect and destroy when they attacked a real military arsenal owned by the miners. Four automatic pistols, eight high-powered military shotguns, large-caliber ammunition, and long-range weapon sights were seized.
Upon taking office on January 1, President Lula da Silva promised to expel thousands of illegal miners from indigenous reservations, mostly in the Amazon, who are destroying forests, polluting rivers and enslaving Indians in search of gold, and announced a major military operation to remove all invaders from the region. . To date, this military mega-operation has not taken place, the government has sent several teams from the Federal Police, the Federal Highway Police, Ibama and some military personnel to the Yanomami reserve, the largest in Brazil. who, lacking sufficient personnel and funds, took the risk of carrying out concrete actions in the middle of the forest, without having time, however, to expel all the invaders.
Author: Domingos Grilo Serrinha This Correspondent in Brazil
Source: CM Jornal
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