Brazil squeezes illegal miners out of Yanomami territory

Armed government officials with Brazil's justice, Indigenous and environment agencies on Wednesday began to press thousands of illegal gold miners out of Yanomami Indigenous territory.The operation could take months.

There are believed to be some 20,000 people engaged in the activity, often using toxic mercury to separate the gold.The authorities — the Brazilian environmental agency Ibama found a helicopter, an airplane, a bulldozer, and makeshift lodges and hangars and destroyed them.

Two guns and three boats with 5,000 liters of fuel were also seized. They also discovered a helicopter hidden in the forest and set it ablaze. Ibama established a checkpoint next to a Yanomami village on the Uraricoera River to interrupt the miners' supply chain there.

Agents seized the 12-meter boats, loaded with a ton of food, freezers, generators, and internet antennas. The federal government has declared a public health emergency for the Yanomami people, who are suffering from malnutrition and diseases such as malaria as a consequence of illegal mining.