Special Forces Seize Weapons and Destroy Mining Equipment to Protect Indigenous Territory

The Brazilian government has launched a major operation aimed at removing illegal miners from the Yanomami Indigenous territory, the largest such reserve in the country. The operation, spearheaded by Brazil’s environmental protection agency Ibama, is targeting wildcat gold and tin miners who have been encroaching on the protected region deep in the Amazon rainforest.

Special-forces environmental operatives, working in collaboration with the Indigenous agency Funai and the newly established ministry for Indigenous peoples, began the operation on Monday. Their primary focus has been the Uraricoera river, a major waterway used by miners to access remote areas of Yanomami land. Illegal miners also rely on clandestine airstrips scattered throughout the region to transport goods and equipment.

As part of the operation, Brazil’s government reported that environmental forces had destroyed mining-related infrastructure, including a helicopter, an airplane, and a bulldozer used by mining mafias to build illegal roads and facilitate their operations. Footage released by Ibama showed the smoldering remains of a helicopter after it was set ablaze to prevent its further use.

The Yanomami people, who have faced decades of exploitation by illegal miners, are among Brazil’s most vulnerable Indigenous communities. In December, the Guardian revealed the existence of a 75-mile-long “road to chaos,” which had been carved through their lands by illegal miners, causing severe environmental destruction and putting the health and safety of the Yanomami at great risk. The recent operation is seen as an effort to stem this exploitation and protect the 30,000 Yanomami people who call the area home.

Indigenous rights advocate Sônia Guajajara, who was appointed Brazil’s first-ever Minister for Indigenous Peoples under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s administration, expressed her commitment to safeguarding the Yanomami. “The Yanomami want peace – that is all they want,” Guajajara said in an interview, vowing to bring an end to the violence and destruction caused by illegal mining in the region.

The roots of the mining crisis in Yanomami territory trace back to the 1970s and 80s, when gold rushes spurred waves of illegal miners, known as garimpeiros, onto Indigenous lands. The Brazilian government, under military dictatorship, had encouraged such incursions, claiming that foreign powers sought to seize the mineral-rich Amazon. In the early 1990s, after global outcry, the Brazilian government created a 9.6 million-hectare protected territory for the Yanomami people, which was largely respected until recent years.

However, during the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro (2018-2022), illegal mining activity surged, with at least 25,000 miners reported to have entered Yanomami lands. Bolsonaro’s environmental policies, which included dismantling Indigenous and environmental protections, fueled rampant deforestation and further exploitation of Indigenous territories. The result was violence, the spread of disease, and severe environmental degradation. Yanomami leaders have described the Bolsonaro years as a “government of blood.”

Now, under President Lula, who began his third term on January 1, 2023, the government has promised to restore the protection of Indigenous lands and crack down on illegal mining. Lula has expressed strong commitment to reversing the damage caused by his predecessor’s policies, stating, “We will put a complete end to any kind of illegal mining. This can’t be simply through a law – it must be almost a profession of faith.”

The ongoing operation is viewed as a critical step in Lula’s broader effort to protect the Amazon and Indigenous communities, and it is part of a wider push to dismantle the illegal mining networks that have ravaged Brazil’s Indigenous territories in recent years.