The Brazilian government has declared a state of emergency in Brazil’s largest Yanomami indigenous sanctuary due to the lack of medical care for the population, which suffers from childhood malnutrition and malaria.
Brazilian President Luis Lula da Silva, who is visiting the region this Saturday to understand the plight of Yanomami children, has also set up a national coordinating commission to combat the lack of medical care for the indigenous population, according to what was published in a supplemental edition of the Official Gazette on Friday evening, reports E.F.E.
The Health Emergency Declaration was signed by Minister of Health Nicia Trindade, who will also set up a Public Health Emergency Operations Center to “plan, organize, coordinate and control” the measures taken to resolve the situation.
“We will join forces to ensure life and overcome this crisis,” Lula da Silva said on social media this Saturday, heading to the Amazonian state of Roraima, on the border with Venezuela, where most of the territory of the Yanomami is located.
The leader of the Workers’ Party and the President of Brazil is accompanied by Minister of Indigenous Affairs Sonia Guajajara, who warned of a “humanitarian and medical” crisis facing the Yanomami, also affected by the strong presence of informal miners, mostly in search of gold.
“It is very sad to realize that indigenous peoples, including 570 Yanomami children, starved to death during the last government,” far-right Jair Bolsonaro denounced the minister on her Twitter profile, classifying it as “unacceptable” to see their “relatives die of malnutrition” .
The Yanomami Indigenous Sanctuary is a sprawling area of nearly 10 million hectares that is currently home to more than 30,400 people, according to official figures.
In the 1990s, the Yanomami lost a fifth of their population to diseases introduced by miners, which Bolsonaro tried to legalize as part of his policy of protecting the exploitation of the natural resources of the Amazon.
Lula promised that during his term, which ends in January 2027, he will protect indigenous peoples and end the destruction of the Amazon rainforest, which has reached record levels of deforestation while Bolsonaro was in power.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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