The company responsible for the Belo Monte hydroelectrical plant, Norte Energia, will indemnify the fishermen of the Xingu river, as demanded by IBAMA’s, Brazil’s environmental agency, opinion issued four months ago. The company had been disagreeing with the environmental agency and had proposed another solution.

According to IBAMA, Norte Energia has not complied with the conditions established for the issue of the plant’s operation license, such as the adoption of mitigation measures for the effects of damming, reservoir formation and water flow control on the lives of fishermen.

The proposal made by Norte Energia still has no values and contemplates less than half of the amount of fishermen of the Xingu. According to estimates by the Federal Public Ministry in Altamira (PA), there are more than four thousand fishermen impacted. The company, by demanding the presentation of an active fisherman’s card for the payment of the reparation, does not even consider all the impacted people, since many have given up the activity due to the lack of fish in the stretches of the river altered by the plant.

According to an analysis by the Instituto Socioambiental (ISA), municipalities with presence of illegal miners have worse living conditions than the average of the region. The average Social Progress Index (SPI) of the municipalities affected by mining is 4% lower than the Amazon average and 20% lower than the national average.

“This dismantles the narrative of the miners and the illegal groups, who say that the activity brings economic return, with job generation and benefits for the town. We see that it is exactly the opposite. If there is a financial benefit, this resource is not staying in the town. It goes somewhere, and in the municipality only the environmental impact and the need for the public authorities to spend money to repair the damage remain” says Antonio Oviedo, ISA’s advisor, and author of the study, along with Victor da Silva Araújo.

Throughout the Legal Amazon, about 6 million people, spread over at least 216 municipalities, suffer from the effects of illegal mining. Deforestation, loss of biodiversity, contamination by mercury and an increase in violence and diseases are some of the main problems caused by the activity.

The Hutukara Yanomami Association (HAY) denounced that a Yanomami leader, identified as Cleomar, was murdered and an adolescent injured in the Napolepi community, in Alto Alegre, state of Roraima. The organization accuses a group of gold miners, linked to a criminal faction, of being responsible for the crimes that took place on Sunday (October 2).

HAY’s letter was sent to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, FUNAI (National Indian Foundation) and the Federal Police. According to the document, the indigenous people were caught in an ambush. The HAY also requested the withdrawal of the miners from the Yanomami Indigenous Land, the reconstruction of an ethno-environmental protection base and the presence of the National Force in the region.

A new ruling by the Federal Court ordered the National Indigenous Agency (FUNAI) to protect the Ituna-Itatá Indigenous Land (TI), maintaining the previous decision, but this time ordering the Union to remove the invaders and allocate a permanent team to the TI.

The area was under restriction of use since 2011, when Indigenous peoples in volunteer isolation were seen in the region, in the state of Pará. In 2021, however, FUNAI let the restriction expire. The decision keeps the Indigenous protected territory status for another three years. The territory is considered one of the most deforested in the last 10 years.

A study by researchers from Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz), Instituto Socioambiental (ISA), Evandro Chagas Institute and Universidade Federal de Roraima (UFRR), showed that fish from three out of four points in the Rio Branco Basin have higher levels of mercury than the limit designated as safe by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

According to the researchers, the closer to the Yanomami Indigenous Land (TI), the greater the risks. “The high rates of contamination observed are probably due to the numerous illegal gold mines installed in the channels of the Mucajaí and Uraricoera rivers”, says the study.

A survey published in The Intercept Brasil shows that the Bolsonaro government ignored 21 requests for help from the Yanomami Hutukara Association. The documents denounced the arrival of miners, criminals and the spread of diseases and hunger in the region.

Mining in Yanomami territory soared during the Bolsonaro government. A report by the Yanomami Hutukara Association shows that illegal mining has tripled in the last three years.

A new annual report by the Indigenous Missionary Council (CIMI) points to the increase in violence against indigenous people in Brazil, associated with the dismantling of inspection and assistance bodies for the native population. In 2021, there was a 180% increase in cases of invasion, illegal exploitation and damage to the patrimony of Indigenous Lands in the country compared to 2018, reported the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo. There were 305 episodes, against 109 recorded in 2018.

Regarding cases of violence against the person, the number jumps to 355 in 2021, the highest since 2013, when the organization changed the methodology used for counting cases.

The publication “Violence Against the Indigenous Peoples of Brazil – 2021” highlights how the advance of crimes against the indigenous population has a close relationship with the socio-environmental policies of the federal government. “FUNAI, the official indigenous agency, has become a regulatory agency for criminal businesses in demarcated or demarcated territories. land grabbing and the subdivision of Union lands – after all, indigenous lands are assets of the Union […]”, says an excerpt from the article by Lucia Helena Rangel, CIMI Anthropological Advisor, and Roberto Antonio Liebgott, missionary and Coordinator of CIMI’s Regional South, in the document.

A new report by the Hutukara Associação Yanomami (HAY) provides an overview of the devastation and violence caused by the advance of illegal gold digging in the Yanomami Indigenous Territory (TIY), located between the states of Roraima and Amazonas.

The report “Yanomami Under Attack: Illegal Gold Digging in the Yanomami Indigenous Land and Proposals to Combat it” points out that there was a record growth in destruction caused by mining activity in the TIY in 2021. Compared to 2020, it grew 46%, the highest rate since 2018, when the organization began monitoring. Between 2016 and 2021, the illegal mining grew 3350%.

The report also indicates a vertiginous growth in cases of malaria and child malnutrition among the residents of the territory, as highlighted by InfoAmazônia, which heard Junior Hekurari, president of the District Indigenous Health Council (CONDISI).

Indigenous members of the Macuxi and Wapichana ethnic groups claim that they “were never consulted” about the construction of the Serra da Lua coal-fired power plant complex, inaugurated this week by the administration of Roraima state, governor Antonio Denarium. The project is located at the limits of the Tabalascada, Malacacheta and Canaunim Indigenous Lands, where 16 communities and 3 thousand indigenous people live.

The project, which has been called the “power plant of death” by the indigenous people, received tax incentives from Denarium’s administration. The plants were auctioned in May 2019, in the first energy auction promoted by Bolsonaro, and are controlled by OXE Energia.

A study conducted by the NGO Greenpeace has exposed a scheme of land grabbing in an area of the Amazon rich in biodiversity, located between the states of Amazonas, Acre and Rondônia.

The region, known as Amacro (the acronym for the three states), covers 454,220 km², almost the size of Spain, and is home to the “Gleba João Bento”, a “target of a chain of fraudulent titles, leading to the appearance of hundreds of purchase and sale deeds and duplicate property registrations,” according to an article in O Estado de São Paulo. Glebas are large areas of government property not yet designated, i.e. public lands that should be transformed into areas of conservation or sustainable use.

A new version of the interactive panel Amazônia Minada (Mined Amazon) shows that the National Mining Agency (ANM) has 3,500 mining applications that overlap, totally or partially, with Indigenous Lands (TIs) and fully protected Conservation Units (UCs) in the Legal Amazon region. Despite being illegal, the federal autarchy continues to allow the requests to be processed. This is seen by analysts as a demonstration of leniency with mining and political pressure for changes in the legislation.

The platform, a partnership between InfoAmazônia, Amazon Watch and the Indigenous Peoples of Brazil Network, collects data from the ANM database on a daily basis and cross-references it with the boundaries of the indigenous land and conservation units of full protection in the Amazon region, identifying which requests overlap or touch on protected areas.

“We live in the middle of the poison. We breathe, eat, drink and wear the poison that they throw”, says Erileide Domingues, a Guarani-Kaiowá leader. She’s denouncing the spraying of pesticides by local farmers to expel the population from the Guyraroká Indigenous Land (TI) located in the municipality of Caarapó, Mato Grosso do Sul state. 

Up north, in the state of Mato Grosso, indigenous people of the Tapirapé and Xavante ethnic groups have also been the target of pesticide attacks.

According to the indigenous people, the chemical attacks, both by plane and tractor, have been happening since 2013, as a Reportér Brasil’s story published in 2019 points out. Attorney Marco Antônio Delfino de Almeida, of the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office, acts in several suits in defense of indigenous communities in Dourados and has been monitoring the cases since 2015. The demarcation of the Guyraroká territory has been before the Federal Supreme Court (STF) since 2014.

The National Electrical Energy Agency (Aneel) extended until December 31st, 2023, the deadline for the state-owned company Eletrobras and its subsidiary Eletronorte to conduct technical and economic feasibility studies for three large hydroelectric plants in the Tapajós River Basin (PA), in the Amazon. The first approval for the evaluation was granted by Aneel in 2009, and was extended twice, in 2018 and 2020.

Together, the plants have a potential of 2.2 GW.

Led by Eletrobrás, the “Tapajós Consortium”, created to enable hydroelectric plants in the Amazon region, has undergone several changes in recent years due to the great environmental risk of the projects, located near areas of environmental preservation, including Indigenous Lands.

The Indigenous Peoples Network of Brazil (APIB – Articulação Nacional dos Povos Indígenas do Brasil) added a petition to the ADPF 709 suit at the Federal Supreme Court (STF), against the recent measure by the National Indigenous Foundation (Funai) that excluded non-demarcated Indigenous Lands (TIs) from its protection (Memorandum nº 18/2021).

In the text, Apib points out “that the official indigenous peoples body of the Brazilian State, responsible for implementing public policy for indigenous peoples, and which has as its primary mission, the defense of the rights and interests of indigenous peoples and their lands, is adopting a posture of minimal defense, exactly at the political moment when indigenous lands are under the target of political and economic interests that fall upon such territories”.

ADPF 709 was filed by the organization in July 2020, together with six political parties, to denounce the government’s omission in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and demand the elaboration of an emergency plan for the control of the pandemic in indigenous territories.

A prayer house in the Aty Guasu village in the Tekoha Yta’i Kagurusu indigenous territory in Douradina Mato Grosso do Sul state, was set on fire in the early hours of December 29. Elderly people and teenagers who were sleeping there managed to get out unharmed. The case is being investigated by the city’s Civil Police.

As in previous occasions, there’s a strong suspicion that the crime was motivated by religious intolerance. A witness reported having smelled gasoline and heard the sound of gunshots. According to the report of the General Assembly of the Kaiowá and Guarani People (Aty Guasu), which recorded the fire in a video posted on social networks, death threats and threats of arson against the oga pysy (as the prayer houses are called) are frequent. The leaders ask the Federal Police (PF) and the Federal Public Prosecution (MPF) to investigate the fact.

In a December 14 report, UOL TAB investigated how the growing presence of evangelical churches and political disputes in indigenous territories are related to the recurring manifestations of religious intolerance against the Guarani Kaiowá population.

The substantial increase of invaders in the Apyterewa Indigenous Land, in São Félix do Xingu, in the state of Pará, during Bolsonaro’s administration, caused the chiefs of the Parakanã ethnic group to “accept” the “agreement” to reduce the 50.7% of their Indigenous Land, ratified 14 years ago, as proposed by land grabbers in the region.

It is estimated that 3,000 people are invading the territory in the most deforested municipality in the Amazon. The ceded part of the territory could be worth up to R$3.9 billion and reinforces the fear of losing demarcated indigenous reservations to land grabbers. The story was explained in detail in the report by Rubens Valente on UOL.

While the world turned his eyes to the COP26,  the indigenous people of Brazil continued to suffer from a wave of violence. Those cases involved the denial of health care, activists who suffered home invasions, and even political arrests. We’ve compiled some of them here:

Dario Kopenawa, vice president of the Hutukara Yanomami Association, denounced the government’s omission in the face of advancing illegal gold mining in the Yanomami territory in Roraima, while indigenous suffer from a grave health crisis.

On the 17th, a three year old yanomami child died due to lack of appropriate health care.

Furthermore, it was reported that Funai, Brazilian indigenous organ, prohibited researchers from FioCruz from carrying out a study on the impact of illegal mining in Yanomami territory.

After participating in the COP26, activists Alessandra Munduruku and Txaí Suruí were the target of political attacks. Mundukuru had her home invaded in Santarém, in the southwest of Pará state, and Txaí, the only indigenous woman to speak at the opening of the event, denounced on social networks that she was targeted by racist and hate messages.

In Maranhão state, 16 indigenous people of the Akroá Gamella people were arrested after protests against the construction of transmission lines by the company Equatorial Energia in the Taquaritiua Indigenous Land. 

In Rio Grande do Sul state, after threats, the Pindó Mirim community in the Itapuã Indigenous Land had its prayer house destroyed in a criminal fire, denounced Mbya Guarani leaders. 

Over  600 mining rafts of illegal gold diggers moved in a queue along the Madeira River in the region of the municipalities of Autazes and Nova Olinda do Norte, in the state of Amazonas.

According to O Estado de S. Paulo newspaper, “a man identified as a gold digger is talking about setting up a ‘wall’ of rafts, with people around the equipment, to react to any kind of inspection approach” by the Federal Police.

The presence of the rafts on the river, one of the most important in the Amazon, is a serious threat to the local ecosystem, compromising hundreds of fish species and also the quality of the water and the health of indigenous populations.

During an official speech at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26), the Minister of the Environment, Joaquim Leite, said “where there is a lot of forest there is also a lot of poverty”.

The statement shocked environmentalists and opposition members of parliament, who highlighted it as an indication that Bolsonaro’s  project for the environment remains intact, despite promises of change. “This statement reveals the mentality of the government is from the 70s of the last century: to deforest, for them, is synonymous with development. As it is a government that despises science, they can’t accept that this vision has been overcome by everything science has shown,” declared congressman Alessandro Molon (PSB-RJ) to Jamil Chade’s column.

In the same speech, Leite announced that “the green future has already begun in Brazil. Two days after the minister’s declaration, Inpe released that the Amazon beat the historical record of deforestation alerts for the month, adding an area of 877 km². Throughout the event, the government has ignored the advance of deforestation in the country.

According to a report by the Hutukara Yanomami Association (HAY), two indigenous from a group in voluntary isolation (Moxihatëtëma) were murdered by criminal gold diggers in the vicinity of the Yanomami Indigenous Land in Roraima. The information was reported on November 1 to HAY.

About three months ago, the Moxihatëtëma indigenous people allegedly moved to the upper Apiaú river with the intention of expelling the criminals from their territory where a mining operation called “Faixa Preta” is functioning. There was a confrontation during the approach and the indigenous people were shot dead by the miners.

According to information from HAY, more than 100 hectares of forest have already been destroyed by mining in the region.

The Indigenous Missionary Council (Cimi) stated that the growing mining invasion in the Yanomami Indigenous Territory in recent years is responsible for these crimes. “What is happening in the Yanomami TI are crimes against humanity with the direct responsibility of the federal government, more precisely of President Jair Bolsonaro, who recently was in Roraima without showing the least concern for the crimes committed against the Yanomami People,” says the text.

The Federal Police initiated an investigation with the objective of dismantling a criminal organization specialized in the extraction and illegal commerce of gold in the south of Pará state. According to the Federal Police, every year around a ton of illegally extracted gold leaves indigenous lands in the region.

The operation “Terra Desolata” targets illegal gold diggers who work in the Kayapó Indigenous Land.  The names of those being investigated have not been publicized, but according to a report by G1, the 4th Federal Criminal Court of the Federal Court in Pará has issued 12 preventive detention orders and 62 search and seizure warrants. Besides Pará, there are warrants being served in Amazonas, Federal District, Goiás, Maranhão, Mato Grosso, Roraima, Rondônia, São Paulo and Tocantins.