What does the Yanomami humanitarian crisis have to do with Venezuela?

The humanitarian crisis in the Yanomami villages, in Roraima, has been associated by members of the Lula da Silva government with the previous government’s disregard for indigenous policies.

Some newspapers have already spoken of indigenous “genocide”, and an investigation has been opened for the Federal Police to find those responsible.

President Lula announced that he intends to declare a health emergency in the indigenous region, which comprises most of Venezuela.

However, the region has been receiving Venezuelan refugees, fleeing the regime of Nicolás Maduro, a political ally of Lula, for several years, creating a snowball of social problems in the region.

This was denounced by former president Jair Bolsonaro a few times, but newspapers did not pay attention.

However, even before receiving Venezuelans in their villages, the region was already affected by the neglect of PT governments.

In 2014, a report by the left-wing website BBC News Brasil pointed out that malnutrition was being responsible for the death of indigenous children.

“Malnutrition has killed 419 indigenous children since 2008”, said BBC News about the period corresponding to the PT governments.

It so happens that, with the economic collapse generated by the socialist regime of Maduro, many refugees moved to Brazil through the demarcated villages and started to remain in the place that no longer offered structure for the inhabitants themselves.

This is what UN reports show.

The UN Refugee Agency pointed out, in April 2022, that about 7,000 indigenous Venezuelans had entered Brazil, recognized as refugees.

According to the UN Refugee Agency, the migration flow began in 2017, but the agency has been following the growth seen since 2016.

In 2018, another report by the same BBC said: “Hostilized in cities, Venezuelans seek shelter in indigenous villages in Roraima”.

The main village highlighted by the report was the Yanomami, which extends across both countries.

Even an indigenous activist affiliated with the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB) told the stories of Venezuelans who arrived talking about extreme difficulties experienced in the neighboring country.

The report was very clear about the growing problem in the region: “Hundreds of migrants fleeing the economic collapse in Venezuela are seeking shelter in indigenous communities on the Brazilian side of the border”, said the website.

“They report that the situation on the other side is very difficult and they have no more money to buy food,” indigenous activist Telma Taurepang, who estimates the number of Venezuelans in the villages, told the BBC website.

“We indigenous people have no borders. We don’t want to expel our Venezuelan brothers, much less their relatives, but large and unplanned displacements cause problems”, says Telma.

She says that communities are uncomfortable with the situation.

Many fear that Venezuelans will bring disease to the villages.

More than 200 cases of measles had already been registered that year (2018) in Roraima – the majority among Venezuelans.

“The climate could get heavy if they migrate more, because then it will turn into chaos in terms of health”, says the activist. That was in 2018.

Already at that time, the then Special Secretariat for Indigenous Health of the Temer government was reporting an increase in the flow of migrants in the Yanomami and Alto Rio Negro health districts, both neighboring Venezuela.

“The most significant impact for multidisciplinary indigenous health teams is in carrying out the vaccine blockade and intensifying epidemiological surveillance in these places, especially in areas closer to the border”, said the agency in a 2018 report.

In addition to health problems, authorities reported an increase in crimes, as the entry of immigrants also brought people linked to organized crime in the neighboring country, drug trafficking and even illegal mining, one of the problems recently highlighted in reports about the Yanomami crisis.

Still in 2022, charged by newspapers about the problem of illegal mining and the connection with sexual abuse in the region, Funai spoke about the relationship between the increase in illegal practice and the growing migration from the neighboring country. In a statement, the agency responded to the press.

“It should also be noted that, currently, the problem of mining in the Yanomami area is further aggravated by the increase in the number of Venezuelan miners in the region, due to the migratory flow of people from Venezuela to Brazil due to the humanitarian crisis in that country, the which has greatly impacted the entire state of Roraima. In this sense, Funai supports and carries out various actions to combat illicit acts, such as land grabbing, deforestation and illegal mining in the Yanomami Indigenous Land,” said the agency.

Funai also spoke of “decades of failure of the Brazilian indigenist policy which, in the past, was guided by vested interests, lack of transparency and strong presence of non-governmental organizations”.

The entity referred to the interests of international entities on the region’s resources, which often appear under the guise of protecting indigenous peoples.

At the time, Funai highlighted that R$4.5 million had been invested in actions in the region since the beginning of the pandemic.

There was also the restructuring of the five Ethno-environmental Protection Bases (BAPEs).

In December 2021, an operation against illegal mining in the Yanomami Indigenous Land seized 89 aircraft, disabled another 22 and inspected 87 clandestine landing strips in the indigenous land.

Regarding the operations, the website of the Missionary Indigenous Council reported:

“The operation identified airstrips, made contact with the garimpeiros for voluntary “evacuation” with determined deadlines, activated the Federal Police for criminal measures when finding aircraft and mines in operation and issued arrest warrants for armed Venezuelans who were in national territory”.

With information from Brasil Sem Medo