A Yanomami native follows environmental agency agents during an operation against illegal gold mining on indigenous lands in the heart of the Amazon in Roraima state (REUTERS/Bruno Kelly/File)

A Brazilian Senate committee announced on Wednesday that 19,000 illegal miners left the Yanomami reservationwhose indigenous peoples face a serious humanitarian and health crisis.

The senator rodrigues boyChairman of the Temporary Commission on the Situation of the Yanomami, told the Upper House that “over 19,000″ Illegal miners have already left the reserve in the “last thirty days“and only stay”about 800″ leave this territory.

According to the official legislator, “easily, maximum until the end of March, the area can be totally free» illegal miners, estimated at 20,000 before the measures taken by the president’s government Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Over the past four years, encouraged by the policies promoted by the now ex-president Jair Bolsonaroillegal mining had a remarkable expansion throughout the Amazon region and has even reached indigenous lands.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva visited the Yanomani Indigenous House in Boa Vista, Roraima state in January (Ricardo Stuckert/Handout via REUTERS)
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva visited the Yanomani Indigenous House in Boa Vista, Roraima state in January (Ricardo Stuckert/Handout via REUTERS)

In mid-January, the Lula government, which came to power on the first day of this year, discovered a very serious humanitarian and health situation in Yanomami land, inhabited by this ethnic group in the north of the country.

According to the authorities, one of the reasons for this crisis was the massive activity of illegal minerswho contaminated rivers with mercury and devastated part of this territory, inhabited by nearly 30,000 indigenous people.

Lula ordered the immediate removal of these miners, who were estimated at around 20,000and determined to send a great humanitarian aid to the indigenous people who, in recent years, have denounced the situation on several occasions, but without finding an echo within the government.

“If it’s not like that, then the same thing will happen for thirty years. This will be a recurring event. Either the State remains present, with support, supervision and control, or it will then be one more operation in the area,” added Rodrigues.

The commission, made up of eight parliamentarians and which has 120 days to act, will make two visits to the Amazon state of Roraima, on the border with Venezuela and where the reserve is located.

(With information from EFE)

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