Prospectors Invade Yanomami Land and Brazil Says It Has No Manpower to Remove Them
Written by Thaís Brianezi
Tuesday, 20 December 2005
The presence of prospectors on Yanomami Indian lands in Brazil is an old problem. Over the last two months, with an increase in the number of prospectors, it has been getting worse.
According to the coordinator general of the Brazilian NGO, Cooperation Service for the Yanomami People (Secoya), Silvio Cavuscens, "Some of the prospectors are getting close to Indian villages and confronting the Yanomami. They bring disease and harm the environment. Brazilian government health agents have left the area because they are afraid of what might happen."
The Yanomami reserve area, in the states of Roraima and Amazonas, on the border of Brazil with Venezuela, was officially established in 1992. Some 12,000 Indians live there.
"In 1993, there were some 10,000 prospectors in the region and a serious conflict resulting in the deaths of 16 Yanomami occurred in a place called Haximu. The incident got international attention and the government cracked down on the prospectors and removed them (5 prospectors were sentenced for the deaths of the Indians at Haximu). Unfortunately, the prospectors have returned," explains Cavuscens.
Under Brazilian law, the state owns the land in indigenous reserve areas and the Indians have exclusive rights to use it. Thus, the problem is a federal problem and the Federal Police should remove the prospectors. There are reports that the police say they do not have the men to do the job.
Does anyone believe that Congressmen, after refusing to expel one of their gang member accused of corruption in the vote buying scandal, really care of anybody except their own pockets ?
Injustice prevails at all levels and in all sectors.
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The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. 
On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose. 
The push of vigilante groups in Rio de Janeiro's favelas (shantytowns) in the last three years is the most important and alarming information of the just-released study by the Rio de Janeiro University's Violence Research Center (Nupev-Uerj). 
A dispute over drug trafficking territory in Rio de Janeiro has intensified lately, leaving in its wake unprecedented acts of violence, such as the downing of a police helicopter in the northern zone of the city on October 17. Three policemen died and another two were injured. This event has drawn the attention of the international media, who are raising the issue of public security for the 2016 Olympics to be held in Rio.
Government Money goes elsewhere ! Guess where !
Does anyone believe that Congressmen, after
refusing to expel one of their gang member accused of corruption in the vote buying scandal, really care of anybody
except their own pockets ?
Injustice prevails at all levels and in all sectors.
Laws are simply written but not applied.