Brazil moves to stem child ‘genocide’

Brazil’s Ministry of Health has declared a medical emergency in the Yanomami territory, the country’s largest indigenous reservation, following reports of children dying of malnutrition and diseases caused by illegal gold mining.

A decree published Friday by the incoming government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said the aim is to restore health services to the Yanomami people that were dismantled by his far-right predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro.

In four years under Bolsonaro, 570 Yanomami children died of curable ailments, mainly malnutrition, but also malaria, diarrhea and malformations caused by mercury used by wildcat gold miners in the area bordering Venezuela, the Amazon journalism platform Sumauma reported, citing data from a freedom of information request.

Lula visited a Yanomami health center in Boa Vista in Roraima state on Saturday following the publication of photos showing children and elderly men and women so thin their ribs were visible.

“More than a humanitarian crisis, what I saw in Roraima was genocide: a premeditated crime against the Yanomami, committed by a government insensitive to suffering,” Lula tweeted.

The government announced food packages that will be flown to the reservation where some 26,000 Yanomamis live in a region of rainforest and tropical savannah the size of Portugal.

The reservation has been invaded by illegal gold miners for decades, but the incursions multiplied under Bolsonaro, who promised to allow mining on previously protected lands.