In a nature reserve brazilian, not far from the Venezuelan border, lives the largest Amerindian population in Latin America: the Yanomami. Only, of the 26,700 inhabitants of this part of the Amazon rainforest, at least 160 suffer from Covid-19. Five died. The virus was introduced to these lands by gold prospectors.
Up to 300 people under the same roof
Almost 20,000 artisanal gold miners work illegally in the reserve, according to the Yanomami. They dump mercury into rivers to separate gold and gravel, poisoning the entire food chain, and deforest all over again. The main transmission comes from the illegal entry of these gold washers, says Dario Yawarioma, vice-president of the Yanomami Hutukara association. They’re too many. They arrive by helicopter, plane, boat and we have no way of knowing if they are sick.
The situation is all the more alarming as the Yanomami live in community, up to 300 people under the same roof. And the Brazilian government does not seem worried. On the contrary, the president of the ultra-right, Jair Bolsonaro, has left a path for gold diggers. Only glimmer of hope: on June 17, the Brazilian Federal Court ordered the National Foundation of the Indian, a government agency which watches over the Amerindians, to reopen surveillance posts in the reserve to protect the Yanomami from the miners and , of course, from coronavirus.
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