'The situation seen in Yanomami territory is devastating,' says Rodrigo Pacheco.
The Senate President condemned the deaths of children in recent years due to lack of assistance, illness, malnutrition, and the expansion of illegal mining.
247 - The president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco, defended this Saturday (21) the union of the Powers to help the Yanomami indigenous people, amid the humanitarian crisis aggravated by the government of Jair Bolsonaro.
"The devastating situation seen in the Yanomami territory in Roraima, where hundreds of indigenous people, many of them children, have died in recent years due to lack of assistance, disease, malnutrition, and the advance of illegal mining, demands the union of institutions," stated Senator Rodrigo Pacheco.
Read also the Reuters article on the subject:
(Reuters)- President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva promised on Saturday that the government will "civilize" the treatment of indigenous people, as well as end illegal mining in the forests that harms the health of villagers.
The statements were made after the president's visit to the Yanomami Indigenous Health Center in Boa Vista, a day after the Ministry of Health declared a public health emergency to address what it described as a lack of assistance for the Yanomami population.
"What I saw here was inhumane," said Lula, recounting that he had been with very thin children and heard many complaints from indigenous people about the difficulty of returning to their villages and also about the food available.
"It's important for people to know that this country has changed governments and that the government will now act with the seriousness in treating the people that this country had forgotten," said Lula.
The president said that one of the first measures to be taken is to improve transportation conditions so that indigenous people who wish to do so can return to their villages. He also said that the government should structure the treatment of indigenous peoples with doctors who travel to the villages, instead of the indigenous people having to go to the cities.
The president also stressed that illegal mining will be eliminated. "I know how difficult it is to remove illegal mining. I know that attempts have been made to remove them before and they always come back, you know, but we will remove them. Unfortunately, I can't tell you for how long, but we will remove them."
A decree published in an extraordinary edition of the Official Gazette of the Union on Friday established a committee to address the health crisis affecting the Yanomami population, which will have 45 days to present an action plan.
The Minister for Indigenous Peoples, Sônia Guajajara, who was part of Lula's delegation in Boa Vista along with other ministers, stated, alongside the president, that the government will take "all appropriate measures" to resolve the problems identified.
"We also need to hold the previous administration accountable for allowing this situation to worsen to the point where we arrive here and find adults weighing as much as children and children in a state of skin and bones," said the minister.
A report published on Friday by the Sumaúma platform, based on exclusive data, revealed that the number of deaths of children under 5 years old from preventable causes increased by 29% in the Yanomami territory. A total of 570 indigenous children died in the last four years from treatable diseases.