Indigenous leaders reject Bolsonaro’s impending visit to Yanomami land

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Yanomami indigenous leaders released a manifesto rejecting the potential trip of President Jair Bolsonaro to the area to visit gold mines and the army’s border platoons in the Amazon, located in the area.

In a live stream last month, the president expressed interest in visiting the area. For now, the Planalto Palace has only confirmed Bolsonaro’s trip to the Amazon on Thursday, but has not said whether or not he will visit indigenous lands.

“The leaders and associations of the Yanomami Indigenous Land hereby publicly declare that we do not want Jair Bolsonaro to come and talk inside the territory, nor visit mines. We want to remind the president that these mines are illegal and a violation of our rights recognized in Articles 231 and 232 of the 1988 Federal Constitution, and that invaders should be removed from all indigenous lands in Brazil,” read the letter from indigenous leaders.

“We, traditional leaderships, are not interested in discussing illegal mining in Yanomami Indigenous Territory, we do not want to negotiate the legalization of mining, we are against the exploration of mining on indigenous lands, as proposed by Bill No. 191/2020. That is why we do not want the president’s visit to our communities. We have stated our position on this several times and we are not being heard,” stressed the statement.

The president has supported initiatives favorable to mining on indigenous lands and has been critical of those who do not allow the indigenous to use their lands as they wish.

In the letter, the Yanomami and Ie’kwana peoples say they are “outraged” and very angry” because the land is ratified by the government, but nevertheless, “our basic rights to live well and the duty of the Brazilian State to protect and monitor against illegal activities are not being respected by the government itself, which in fact intends to legalize mining on our mother earth against our will.”

“Jair Bolsonaro can’t talk to just one Yanomami and Ie’kwana leadership as if this represents the interest of all our people,” they stated.

“On our land, we have several traditional leaderships and our own associations, which represent our peoples in non-indigenous politics,” they added.