Sao Paulo, Brazil– Armed assailants arrived by boat at night.

Local leaders told the authorities that four boats arrived last week and threw tear gas canisters at the village of Maikohipi in the Palimú region of Yanomami, Brazil’s largest and most famous indigenous reserve.

The area is home to seven tribal communities flanking illegal gold mining activities-the June 5 attack is only one of the most recent escalations of violence.

“We do not have peace,” Junior Hekurari, head of the Yanomami Health Commission Condisi-YY, told Al Jazeera, explaining that the wave of attacks began after a group of tribal members set up barriers to prevent them from traveling along the river and confiscated them. Diesel and other equipment from an illegal mining group.

In the remote area of ??the Amazon on the banks of the Ularicola River, illegal miner groups have fired on tribal members and even federal agents in the past month. This has scared the community and called for action from leaders, residents, and advocacy groups.

In early June, UN human rights experts Deplore Violence against Yanomami and Munduruku, another Brazilian indigenous group, has also been affected by the rise in violence related to illegal mining.

“Violence means that we cannot hunt or take care of crops,” Hekurari said. “All we can think of is to protect the community and the children.”

The Uralicola River passes through the center of the Amazon rainforest in Roraima, Brazil [Bruno Kelly/Reuters]

Mineral-rich areas

The 96,650 square kilometers (37,317 square miles) Yanomami Reserve borders Venezuela and is home to approximately 27,000 tribal residents, including groups of voluntary isolation. It is larger than Portugal and spans two Brazilian states: Roraima and Amazon.

This mineral-rich area has long been the target of gold miners. Anthropologists say that in the 1980s, an estimated 40,000 miners (garimpeiros in Portuguese) invaded the protected area, bringing violence and disease, and killing about 15% of the tribe.

In 1992, the Brazilian government granted Yanomami land protection status, and many garimpeiros left. But just a year later, 16 tribesmen were killed by miners, and they burned down a village in what is known as the Hashim massacre.

One of the main perpetrators, Pedro Emiliano Garcia (Pedro Emiliano Garcia) is the only living Brazilian convicted of genocide in connection with the Holocaust. Avesta was arrested again, carrying two kilograms of gold, and was accused of operating an aircraft logistics network to transport illegal miners and supplies to and from Yanomami’s land.

Brazilian Institute of Social Environment (ISA) estimated About 20,000 illegal miners are currently looking for gold in the reserves. Brazilian Vice President Hamilton Mourão disputed this number, saying that it was 3,500 last year.

Nonetheless, experts say that the recent increase in illegal mining and subsequent violence is due to reduced national inspections and proposed legislation to legalize mining in Brazil’s indigenous protected areas-this is the far-right populist President Jal Bor Sonaro’s campaign promise-and record-high gold prices, currently exceed $60,000 per kilo.

Roraima federal prosecutor Alisson Marugal said: “The area is completely full of garimpeiros … territorial conflicts,” he also said that the infiltration of organized criminal groups and the increase in drug trafficking have contributed to the violence. behavior.

“Illegal mining has become more violent, and relations with indigenous communities have become more violent,” Marugal told Al Jazeera.

Attack rise

In the Amazonian Pará state, about 2,000 kilometers (1,242 miles) south of the Yanomami region, the Munduruku Indigenous Tribal Reserve in the Tapajos River Region is also one of the most gold-rich areas in Brazil and is also facing violent attacks. Increase in the last month.

In mid-May, the Federal Court accepted the prosecutor’s accusation against seven members of the family known as the “cattle on barbecue” family, which controls most of the illegal mining in the territory.

According to court documents, the group obtained a large amount of cash, purchased dozens of powerful excavators and aircraft for digging, and transferred a large amount of gold through a shell company. The group will be tried for environmental crimes, extortion and illegal gold mining.

According to court documents, five aboriginal men received compensation from the organization and intimidated community members who opposed illegal mining. They will also be tried for the same crime.

Last year, two indigenous peoples flew to the capital Brasilia on a Brazilian Air Force plane, where they held a closed-door meeting with Environment Minister Ricardo Salles, which triggered prosecutors’ accusations that the national service was used ” Transporting criminals”.

On April 18, 2016, an indigenous Yanomami village in Roraima State [Bruno Kelly/Reuters]

Recently, several expensive excavators in the Munduruku reserve were destroyed in a federal police operation, and the home of community leader Maria Leusa Kaba was burned down.According to the local website, another indigenous man associated with an illegal mining group is accused of being responsible The real Amazon.

“They brought gasoline in soft drink bottles, armed and shooting,” Leusa said in a video released through the Munduruku Ipereg Ayu Association last week, which was the first time since the attack. “We received voices saying that we must be killed because we got in the way and we condemned [the crimes to the authorities]. “

At the same time, last week, a bus used to transport Mundurku leaders who oppose illegal mining to Brasilia was attacked in Jacareacanga, where the protected area is located, and the driver was threatened. The prosecutor is trying to negotiate a safe escort for the leaders.

“This is a very hostile environment, and it will definitely go unpunished,” said Luisa Molina, an anthropologist at the University of Brasilia who studies Munduruku. “Indigenous people need protection.”

Illegal network

For many years, most of the illegal mining activities in the Amazon region of Brazil, especially those in remote indigenous protected areas such as Yanomami or Munduruku, have been dominated by multiple criminal groups that operate complex, A well-funded and lucrative logistics network.

Airplanes, helicopters and powerful imported excavators used to dig the earth and shell companies used for money laundering (including cross-border) are commonplace in Brazil’s 21st century Amazon gold rush. report Discovered by the Igarape Institute.

The authorities of Roraima are now investigating reports that individuals associated with PCC, Brazil’s most powerful drug cartel, have infiltrated illegal mining operations in the Yanomami region.

PCC-the Portuguese acronym for “First Capital Command”-was established in a prison in São Paulo in the 1990s and has since dominated the Brazilian drug trade, shipping several tons of cocaine to Europe each year. But the exact details of the organization’s alleged involvement in the illegal mining of Yanomami territory are not yet clear.

Prosecutor Marugal said: “It has not been confirmed whether they provide protection, charge a certain percentage of the gold withdrawn, or control mine pits or dredging platforms… This is yet to be investigated.”

Environmental impact

In addition to violent incidents, illegal gold mining is also associated with serious environmental impacts, such as deforestation, which has increased dramatically in Yanomami and Munduruku reserve in recent years.

Mercury is a highly toxic substance related to birth defects and neurological diseases. It is used in the process of gold amalgamation and pollutes the rivers and local food chains that aboriginal communities depend on for survival.

Last year, a Learn A study published by the Fiocruz Institute of Health in Brazil and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) found that 58% of the Munduruku indigenous tribes tested in the Tapajós River area had mercury levels higher than what is considered safe.

At the same time, legislation to legalize mining on indigenous lands—touted by Bolsonaro and pro-mining politicians but criticized by environmentalists as unconstitutional—seems to stall in Congress.

In the violence in the Munduruku reserve last month, Wescley Tomaz, a mining-supporting city councilman in Itaituba, Brazil’s Amazon gold trading center, told local media that “gold miners are marginalized”.

“People confuse illegal gold mining and informal gold mining…Gold is our economy,” Tomaz said, referring to Itetuba. “It’s up to them to decide on mining on indigenous lands.”

In 2016, an agent of the Brazilian Environment Agency demonstrated ammunition found in a camp used by gold miners during an operation against illegal gold mining on indigenous lands [Bruno Kelly/Reuters]

‘We are hostages’

Although Brazil’s illegal mining network can use high-tech equipment, the vast majority of gold sales in the country’s mines are still registered with pen and paper, which experts say can lead to fraud.

“For beef, wood, soybeans…they are flawed systems, but unlike gold, they have the least control,” said Larissa Rodrigues of the Brazilian Social Environmental NGO Selection Institute. . Although there are no official statistics on how much Brazil’s gold exports are believed to be related to illegal activities, Rodríguez estimates that this number may be about 16%.

Fabiano Contarato, a senator from the Brazilian Sustainable Development Network Party, proposed a bill aimed at increasing the transparency of Brazil’s gold supply. He said this will prevent money laundering through illegal gold mining and help reduce violence against indigenous peoples.

Under increasing pressure, Brazil’s Supreme Court has initiated a procedure that will force the government to remove illegal miners and loggers from two protected areas and five other indigenous territories.

But at the same time, the attack continued. “We are hostages,” said Hekurari of Condisi-YY of the Yanomami Health Committee. “We have been intimidated.”