Brazilian bishops stand up for the Yanomami people

Published April 21, 2022.

Brazil’s Catholic bishops have once again spoken out in defense of the nearly 30,000 Indigenous people of Amazonia, just a month after denouncing “predatory and greedy mining projects in indigenous areas”.

"The Yanomami people are being threatened," said the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CNBB) this week.

Bishop Evaristo Pascoal Spengler OFM, president of the Episcopal Commission of Special Pastoral Care for the Fight against Human Trafficking (CEPEETH), issued a bold statement on April 18 that warns of the situation of one of the last peoples living in the Amazon forest.

It is titled Note of Repudiation of Violence against the Yanomami People.

An "alarming" number of attacks

The 63-year-old Franciscan, who was appointed prelate of Marajo in 2016, was reacting to a new report by the Hutukara Associaçao Yanomami that shows mining in the territory located on the border with Venezuela has jumped 46% in 2021 compared to 2020.

According to this 120-page study, documented with photographs of deforestation areas and numerous figures, 16,000 people are directly affected by illegal gold mining. 

That is 56% of the total Yanomami population.

"The number of criminal attacks against the Yanomami communities is alarming," laments Bishop Spengler, who is known for his mystical-prophetic commitment to the cries of the poor and the earth.

He also expresses his "solidarity and commitment to the defense of the life of the communities and the Yanomami forests, especially in the areas of indigenous reserves" and denounces "with indignation all forms of exploitation and violence".

The report also shows an explosion of cases of malaria and other infectious diseases within the community.

Recurrent appeals since the “Amazon Synod”

A new bill that Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s government presented to the National Congress mid-March could legalize the exploitation of mining resources in Yanomami territory.

The text, if adopted, could authorize the exploitation of resources in indigenous territories to make up for the lack of raw materials, due to the drop in imports since the beginning of the war in Ukraine and the embargo on Russian products.

The defense of indigenous peoples and their rights to their lands has been the subject of recurrent appeals by the Brazilian bishops, especially since the Synod of Bishops’ special assembly on the Pan-Amazon Region in October 2019.

In his post-synodal apostolic exhortation, Querida Amazonia, Pope Francis denounced the "injustice and crime" of "businesses... which harm the Amazon and fail to respect the right of the original peoples to the land and its boundaries".