Brazil ramps up removal of gold miner in Yanomami land after shooting

BRASILIA (Reuters) – The Brazilian government assured the Yanomami people on Sunday that it will redouble its efforts to remove the remaining wild miners on the reservation after a member of the indigenous community was shot.

Gold miners killed one man and seriously wounded two others in an attack Saturday in Yanomami territory, as authorities evacuated illegal miners who had invaded Brazil’s largest indigenous reservation, the size of Portugal.

“We will continue the process of removing all miners who are still there illegally,” Indigenous Minister Sonia Guajajara told Globo News TV.

She said about 80% of the more than 20,000 gold miners who invaded the reservation had been evacuated, and those still there resisted removal more violently.

“They must understand that they have to leave and that the state will not back down from expelling them,” Environment Minister Marina Silva said in the same interview.

“We will intensify the operation,” she said, adding that the armed forces could be deployed to finish the job.

It said 300 mine camps had been dismantled, and 20 planes and helicopters destroyed by IPA agents.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva vowed when he took office in January to remove the miners, whose presence had caused a humanitarian crisis by spreading disease and causing malnutrition among the Yanomami by reducing their game and poisoning the rivers.

A massive enforcement process began in February and most of the miners began or were forced to leave.

Federal police said they are investigating the clash between miners and Aboriginal people and are working to find and arrest those responsible for the shooting.

Lula has pledged zero tolerance for mining on indigenous lands protected by the constitution and the Environmental Protection Agency is planning evictions on five more reserves when illegal logging and mining increased under former President Jair Bolsonaro.

(Reporting by Marcella Ayres). Editing by Richard Chang

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