Wearing broken flip-flops held together by a frayed cord, Joao Batista, an illegal gold miner in the Brazilian Amazon, had been walking for days to escape the jungle, fleeing a looming security crackdown.
The wiry 61-year-old with deep creases in his leathery skin was one of thousands of mine workers rushing to leave the Yanomami indigenous reservation, as Brazil sent in the police and army to wrest back control of the remote territory from invaders accused of sparking a humanitarian crisis.
Indigenous leaders have said illegal miners have poisoned the water with mercury, destroyed the rainforest, raped and killed inhabitants, and triggered a food emergency that is devastating the reservation’s 30,000 Yanomami.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Batista, who spent the past seven months working at an illegal mine, did not see himself as a criminal.
However, he said life left him few options other than garimpo — wildcat mining.
“Look, I never went to school. At my age, what else am I going to do to survive?” he told reporters as he walked down a dirt road outside the town of Alto Alegre, in the northern state of Roraima.
He still had about 85km to go before returning to his home in the state capital, Boa Vista.
Up the road, a family fleeing a mine camp was trying to hitch a ride to the capital — a 23-year-old mother, 15-year-old father and their three small children.
They caught malaria in the rainforest and were too sick to walk, they said.
“Our kids are sick, too. I need to get to Boa Vista,” the young father said.
There has been an exodus of mine workers from the Yanomami reservation since Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva ordered the military to establish a no-fly zone there last week, cracking down on the bush planes the mines rely on for food and supplies.
Some are making the grueling trek out on foot. Others are fleeing down the Uraricoera River, crowding more than 30 people onto long, narrow boats.
Brazilian Minister of Justice Flavio Dino on Monday said the government had begun deploying more than 500 police and soldiers for an operation to evict the miners, along with the mine-camp cooks, prostitutes and others drawn to the rainforest gold rush.
Dino said the government expected at least 80 percent of the estimated 15,000 people who have invaded the Yanomami reservation would leave on their own before authorities began “coercive” measures, which he said would come this week.
As a first step, the Brazilian Institute of Environment on Wednesday said that it had started destroying heavy equipment seized at the mines, including a helicopter, plane and bulldozer.
The Yanomami territory, Brazil’s biggest indigenous reservation, is one of several to suffer a massive influx of illegal miners under former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, whom activists accuse of encouraging the incursions.
The crackdown is stoking tension in the region, where an entire economy has developed around the illegal gold industry.
Gold sells for 280 reals (US$53.83) a gram on the black market in Roraima. Reporters met miners carrying up to 30g.
However, the money risks running out fast.
At a local truck stop, an illegal bush pilot flashed a handful of gold — his payment for a recent flight.
He said he worried it would be his last: He has had to stop working because of the no-fly zone.
Locals fear the impact of a massive influx of newly jobless workers.
Military police in Roraima launched what they called “Operation Exodus” to “intensify” their presence in the region and “pre-empt disturbances.”
Authorities have encouraged the miners to leave the reservation voluntarily — although Dino vowed to prosecute “all those who committed crimes such as genocide, environmental crimes, financing illegal gold mining and money laundering.”
One 58-year-old miner, who asked to be identified only as “Parmalat,” his nickname, said he resented being treated like a criminal, when crimes like corruption often go unpunished.
“We’re treated like we’re worthless,” he said. “All we want to do is work, and we’re called criminals. The real criminals aren’t treated that way.”
Former Nicaraguan president Violeta Chamorro, who brought peace to Nicaragua after years of war and was the first woman elected president in the Americas, died on Saturday at the age of 95, her family said. Chamorro, who ruled the poor Central American country from 1990 to 1997, “died in peace, surrounded by the affection and love of her children,” said a statement issued by her four children. As president, Chamorro ended a civil war that had raged for much of the 1980s as US-backed rebels known as the “Contras” fought the leftist Sandinista government. That conflict made Nicaragua one of
COMPETITION: The US and Russia make up about 90 percent of the world stockpile and are adding new versions, while China’s nuclear force is steadily rising, SIPRI said Most of the world’s nuclear-armed states continued to modernize their arsenals last year, setting the stage for a new nuclear arms race, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said yesterday. Nuclear powers including the US and Russia — which account for about 90 percent of the world’s stockpile — had spent time last year “upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions,” researchers said. Since the end of the Cold War, old warheads have generally been dismantled quicker than new ones have been deployed, resulting in a decrease in the overall number of warheads. However, SIPRI said that the trend was likely
BOMBARDMENT: Moscow sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in ‘one of the most terrifying strikes’ on the capital in recent months A nighttime Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 while they slept in their homes, local officials said yesterday, with the main barrage centering on the capital, Kyiv. Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. Russia flung more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to visit Canada next week, his first since relations plummeted after the assassination of a Canadian Sikh separatist in Vancouver, triggering diplomatic expulsions and hitting trade. Analysts hope it is a step toward repairing ties that soured in 2023, after then-Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau pointed the finger at New Delhi’s involvement in murdering Hardeep Singh Nijjar, claims India furiously denied. An invitation extended by new Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to Modi to attend the G7 leaders summit in Canada offers a chance to “reset” relations, former Indian diplomat Harsh Vardhan Shringla said. “This is a
RSS