Brazil urged to widen illegal mining crackdown after Yanomami raid

• Brazilian authorities launched recent raid to expel miners
• Experts say scope should be wider, policies must change
• Indigenous reservation faces health crisis due to mining

RIO DE JANEIRO - In 1992, Sydney Possuelo, then the head of Brazil's indigenous affairs agency Funai, led an operation to evict thousands of illegal gold miners from the country's largest indigenous reservation, inhabited mainly by the Yanomami people.

Last week, history repeated itself when a government taskforce involving the military, police, Funai and other agencies launched a raid to expel more than 20,000 miners accused of causing a humanitarian crisis among an estimated 28,000 Yanomami in the Amazon rainforest territory.

Armed agents arrested and removed dozens of miners from the reservation – which is roughly the size of Portugal and located on Brazil's northern border with Venezuela - after thousands reportedly fled ahead of the much-publicized raid.

Activists and authorities say mining has devastated the area, polluted its rivers with mercury, and caused a health crisis that has killed hundreds of Yanomami, especially children, due to preventable diseases and malnutrition.

"You had similar problems (in 1992), such as lack of food, children dying, but it was not as intense as the health situation now," said Possuelo, a renowned ethnologist specialising in Brazil's isolated Amazon peoples.

Possuelo said violence against indigenous peoples was not just a matter of "shooting some unfortunate person in the head".

"It is cutting off their water, polluting their rivers," he added. "You kill and destroy (them) when you make it impossible ... to drink or eat."

The recent operation followed campaign promises by President Luíz Inácio Lula da Silva, who took office in January, to stop illegal mining in indigenous Amazon territories.

Along with deforestation, illegal mining soared during the previous far-right administration of Jair Bolsonaro.

But if Lula is to fulfil his vow, activists, policymakers, and politicians say his government must expand its enforcement efforts to other hard-hit areas that have received less attention, and change policies that enable illegal gold mining.

A 2013 law allowing gold to be sold with paper receipts based on the "good faith" of the seller, making it impossible to trace its origin, has been cited by researchers and prosecutors as one of the main causes of a boom in illegal gold mining.

“This creates a perfect system of impunity for those who launder gold from indigenous areas,” said Sérgio Leitão, director of the Instituto Escolhas, a think-tank that has studied the illegal gold trade.

More areas under threat

The area of indigenous territories and other protected land affected by illegal small-scale mining in Brazil rose 525% between 2010 and 2021, to 19,606 hectares (48,447 acres), according to data published last year by MapBiomas, a network of research organisations and NGOs.

MapBiomas found a steep increase during the administration of Bolsonaro, who not only rolled back environmental protections but failed to recognize any new indigenous territory, called for new mining in protected areas, and presented a bill to legalise such activity.

When the 1992 operation took place in Yanomami territory, illegal mining affected just over 3,300 hectares (8,227 acres)across Brazil's indigenous areas, according to the research institution.

While the plight of the Yanomami has been in the spotlight, MapBiomas data shows that other indigenous reservations have had larger areas hit by illegal small-scale mining - known as "garimpo" in Portuguese.

For example, in 2021, compared to the 1,556 hectares (3,885 acres) occupied by illegal mining in Yanomami territory, the area affected in Munduruku territory was three times bigger, and in Kayapó territory more than seven times bigger.

“You already have well-known cases of mercury poisoning, food insecurity,” said one Funai agent, referring to the Munduruku territory where they work.

“The Munduruku ... have no protein, they cannot hunt or fish, and rely on industrialised produce from the city ... Everybody is sick,” added the agent, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Luisa Molina, an anthropologist at the NGO Instituto Socioambiental (ISA), said the Brazilian government should also prioritize the Munduruku and Kayapó territories for enforcement to stop illegal mining.

This is increasingly important, she noted, because miners are known to move from one hotspot to the next based on information about where there are better money-making prospects with less risk.

“We are concerned there might be a rebound effect,” Molina said, referring to a possible rush of miners from Yanomami territory to reservations including those occupied by the Munduruku and Kayapó peoples.

However, she stressed that the government should not turn its attention away from the Yanomami reserve.

Activists are also concerned that more Brazilian miners may cross the border into Venezeula’s Alto Orinoco-Casiquiare Biosphere Reserve, where many Yanomami communities are located.

A 2022 report by Venezuelan NGO SOS Orinoco said Brazilians had been mining in the region over the last decade.

Going after gold

About half of the 100 tonnes of gold produced each year by Brazil are believed to be illegally mined and then laundered by financial brokerages, according to mining industry lobby group Ibram.

Leitão of Instituto Escolhas said such brokerages are free to “act like stray dogs” and needed to be better regulated by the Central Bank and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

He also called for stricter licensing processes for small-scale miners and for the federal tax service to implement a digitised system to track gold from when it is transported from a mine until the point of sale.

The Central Bank this week said it was considering implementing “a new inspection system that allows the traceability of the gold extracted, as well as the adoption of electronic invoices”.

The proposals are part of a 2022 bill to track gold production, including by putting an end to the concept of “good faith” in sales, presented by the first indigenous woman elected to Brazil’s Congress and also the first to head Funai, Joenia Wapichana.

Last October, just before the presidential elections concluded, Wapichana told Context she would also like to see Brazil's 1988 constitution changed, to better protect indigenous peoples by ensuring that mining in their territories is kept illegal indefinitely.

While the constitution guarantees protection for indigenous lands, it also states that mining should ultimately be allowed in those areas with authorization from Congress “under the law”.

“I really want this (to change), but this might be a dream for when we have a more aligned, progressive Congress,” Wapichana said in an interview.

(Reporting by Andre Cabette Fabio; Editing by Kieran Guilbert)