Gold rush fuels armed violence in Brazilian Amazon
By Hugo Bachega
BBC News
Published1 hour ago
CHRISTIAN BRAGA/GREENPEACE
It is estimated that illegal mining destroyed an area equivalent to 500 football fields in the Yanomami territory last year
At around midday on 11 May, Dario Kopenawa, an indigenous leader, received a desperate phone call from a remote village in the Brazilian Amazon. Palimiú has a population of about 1,000, who live in large communal houses on the banks of a river called Uraricoera. You can only reach it by plane, or after a long journey on a boat.
Kopenawa, who is from the Yanomami tribe, is used to hearing pleas for help from communities in the rainforest, but this one was different. "They attacked us," a man told him, "they almost killed us". They, Kopenawa was told, were garimpeiros, or illegal gold miners, who had arrived on seven motorboats, some carrying automatic weapons, and started shooting indiscriminately.
Hiding behind trees, the Yanomami fought back, using shotguns and bows. An indigenous man was grazed by a bullet in the head, Kopenawa learned, and four miners were injured. The attackers left after half an hour, but threatened to come back for revenge. Terrified, women fled into the dense jungle with their children to seek refuge. It was chaotic, and two boys, aged one and five, drowned.
Palimiú, located deep in the state of Roraima, sits on Brazil's largest indigenous reserve, which has an area similar to Portugal and 27,000 people. Mining is illegal there, but prospectors have always found ways to do their work. "Garimpeiros are all over the place," Kopenawa told me. He avoids going to areas where they are because of death threats and, after the call, he alerted the authorities, saying something had to be done.
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