Refinitiv Newscasts - Brazil evicts miners from Yanomami territory

GoldMining

22/03/2023 08:15

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Source: Thomson Reuters

Description: Brazil has ousted almost all illegal gold miners from the
Yanomami territory, its largest indigenous reservation, and will remove miners
from six more reserves this year, the head of the federal police's new
environmental crimes division said Tuesday. Flora Bradley-Watson reports.
Short Link: https://refini.tv/3yY8qyY

Video Transcript:

Brazil has ousted almost all illegal gold miners from the Amazon territory of
the Indigenous Yanomami tribe. That's according to federal police officials on
Tuesday, who say they plan to remove miners from six more reserves this year.
It's all part of President Lula da Silva's plan to crack down on environmental
crime and protect indigenous groups. One of his first acts upon taking office
in January was to declare a humanitarian crisis in the Yanomami region, which
is the size of Portugal and lies along Brazil's northern border with
Venezuela. The area had been invaded by thousands of gold miners threatening
communities with firearms, spreading malaria, polluting rivers and scaring off
wild game, which led to children being treated in hospital for malnutrition.
Hundreds of deaths were reported. This Yanomami leader says there are 180
communities in a health emergency. To help them, Brazil's armed forces have
parachuted in food parcels. Meanwhile, police said they were not focusing on
the arrest of miners but instead seizing the resources of those accused of
financing them. They are also setting up new bases across the Amazon and
seeking international help on law enforcement in the region, including the
development of radio-isotope technology to prove the illegal origin of seized
gold. Humberto Friere is the director of the newly created environment and
Amazon department of the federal police.

We need a structure that is not based on good faith. It has to be on the proof
of the illicit origin and a robust legal tracking structure through tax
documents. In parallel, the police work will support whenever there is a
suspicion that these legal parameters were not followed.

The Brazilian government is also studying new laws to stamp out illegal gold
mining, which accounts for roughly half of Brazilian gold the country exports
to nations, including Switzerland and Britain