Brazil: Airlift rescue of sick Yanomami children in Amazon | Lula’s government declared a health emergency in the country’s largest indigenous reserve

Number of hospitalizations Yanomami children in critical condition has increased in the past weekFirst Brazilian government It declared a health emergency in the country’s largest domestic reserve and forced the only airline to provide rescue service to increase its flights. The legacy of Jair Bolsonaro’s presidency will be disastrous In many indigenous communities in Brazil.

Tribal Peoples Minister, Sonia GujajaraOfficials made the request this Sunday The murder of a new member of the Guajajara peopleThe ethnic group he belongs to and the Amazon have suffered several violent attacks in recent years.

Transfers will increase

Vore, an air taxi company operating in the Amazonian state of Roraima, which has a contract to transport indigenous people who need to be hospitalized from their villages to the regional capital of Boa Vista, has already made up to 16 flights a day. Before the increase in demand. You can see small planes take off from this company on Saturday afternoons Yanomami children are extremely vulnerable And they were changed to the only children’s hospital in Boa Vista.

The first minor, who was less than a year old and diagnosed with pneumonia for which he was put on a respirator, disembarked in a caravan from a Yanomami village near the border with Venezuela. The second, just 14 days old and with obvious signs of malnutrition, arrived at the Vore airstrip in Boa Vista on a Cessna 206 from the same company after about an hour and a half of travel.

On Friday, four Yanomami children with serious health problems had already arrived in Boa Vista by plane, one of whom had less than a month to live, diagnosed with malaria, pneumonia and fever, and flew with his mother and a nurse.

Yanomami Native LandBrazil’s largest reserve of about 27 indigenous peoples on about ten million hectares, It is located in a part of the Amazon that is difficult to access in the extreme north of the country and on the border with Venezuela.. Its access is only possible by rivers, during long days of navigation, so patient transfers and rescues must be carried out by air.

“We used to bring one patient on every flight. Now there are days when we bring up to three per flight.”He was admitted last Friday Fausto Rodrigues dos Santos, COO of Vore. Rodriguez explained that a doctor and a nurse always travel on the planes, and that most of the time rescues are requested when the condition is already very bad.

All the rescued children were shifted to hospital Boa Vista’s only children’s hospitalWhere until Friday 59 minors were admittedfrom which 45 YanomamiOften severe malnutrition, severe diarrhoea, pneumonia and malaria. The Brazilian government declared a “health emergency of national importance” in Yanomami territory on January 20. It also announced that it would send medical reinforcements and food to the region.

The Ministry of Tribal Peoples has estimated that “At least 570” Yanomami children have died in recent years due to “mercury pollution, malnutrition and starvation.”. In 2022 alone, 99 children aged one to four years have died.

Suspicious death of Guajajara tribe

The situation is no less dramatic in the state of Maranhao, where the tribe’s body is located Valdemar Marciano Guajjara He was found on Saturday in a municipality close to his presence with signs of presence Hit him hard on the head. Tribal Peoples Minister, Sonia GujajaraThe recognized leader of the original communities demanded a thorough investigation into the case.

“We received news of another gruesome murder in Arariboya native land in Maranhão. The victim is Valdemar Guajajara, who was killed with clubs and stones. This is the second death of the Guajajara tribe in a weekHe said this on his social media. The first interior minister in Brazilian history.

According to the cabinet member Lula, “There have been reports of other unexplained deaths, and we are calling for a public inquiry to demand investigation and clarification of the causes of these crimes, as well as the punishment of those responsible.” Kujajara added that it is necessary to punish those responsible to break the cycle of violence against tribal people.

For years Maranhão reserves have been the target of attacks by illegal land grabbers and loggers.According to human rights organizations, it also condemns the impunity of these crimes and the inaction of the Brazilian authorities. The clashes escalated during four years of the government of far-right Jair Bolsonaro, Defender of Amazon’s Exploitation, Even in environmental and native reserves, he refused to demarcate new lands for the original people during his administration.