The Yanomami humanitarian crisis, Brazil:* 600+ (apr 1, 2019 – jul 1, 2023)

Description:

The Yanomami Humanitarian Crisis (also characterized as ongoing genocide) was and is being carried out by illegal gold miners (garimpeiros—20,000-25,000 operating in the territory), mining corporations from Canada, UK, Norway, criminal organizations, and facilitated/enabled by the Brazilian government under President Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2023) who actively encouraged illegal mining, dismantled environmental protections, defunded Indigenous health services, and appointed police/military to FUNAI (replacing experienced staff) against the Yanomami and Ye'kwana peoples in Roraima state, northern Brazil between 2019 and ongoing (though illegal mining has plagued the region for decades with spike under Bolsonaro), with an estimated death toll of 570 children under age 5 (2019-2023), 308 deaths in 2023 alone (162 children), and hundreds more unreported, representing approximately 2% of the 30,000 Yanomami population.

Perpetrators engaged in systematic mercury poisoning of rivers (making water undrinkable/toxic and fish inedible), deliberate starvation through destruction of kitchen gardens and ransacking food sources, spreading malaria (60% of Yanomami population impacted by mining, with Yanomami representing 10% of Brazil's malaria cases despite being 0.013% of population), rape of women and children by miners (30+ girls/teenagers pregnant from rapes as of February 2023, three 13-year-olds died after being raped in 2020), sexual abuse in exchange for food, torture, murder (12-year-old girl killed in Aracaçá community April 2022, 5-year-old killed July 2023, three Yanomami shot April 2023 with one dying), attacks on health centers (Homoxi health unit burned December 2022), forest devastation (5,432 hectares destroyed 2023), mass displacement of uncontacted groups (Moxihatatea community's fate unknown after mining camp built nearby), government corruption diverting health funds to mining companies who transported miners instead of doctors, deliberate data blackouts hiding deaths, and complete abandonment of constitutional duty to protect Indigenous territories.

It has been labeled as genocide by President Lula da Silva (who declared "a genocide is happening" in January 2023), five civil organizations (who denounced Bolsonaro at ICC for genocide in January 2023), Gilmara Fernandes Ribeiro of CIMI (stating "It was a genocide...clearly connected to colonialism—neo-colonialism"), Survival International (calling it "conscious strategy by Bolsonaro government to promote this genocide"), scholars and activists characterizing Bolsonaro's policies as genocidal intent, and Brazil's 2006 Supreme Court (which recognized the 1993 Haximu massacre of Yanomami by gold miners as genocide—establishing precedent). However, proving genocidal intent remains legally challenging despite Bolsonaro's public statements comparing Indigenous people to "animals in a zoo" and saying in 2020 "Indians are undoubtedly changing...becoming human beings just like us." Current President Lula's 2023 emergency operations removed 82% of miners but 157 Yanomami died in 2023 (mostly children 0-4), deaths in 2024 continue, and armed miners remain terrorizing communities—demonstrating ongoing crisis despite government intervention. Complete impunity for Bolsonaro and mining networks with ICC case pending but no prosecutions yet.

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