Images projected by the NGO Instituto Socioambiental on the National Congress building in Brasilia, on 3 December 2020. (EVARISTO SA/AFP via Getty Images)
-- São Paulo -- Catholic and indigenous organizations in Brazil have denounced the deteriorating living conditions of the Yanomami people, who are under attack from illegal miners and suffering lack of healthcare assistance from the government. According to Luis Ventura, a lay missionary at the Bishops’ Conference’s Indigenous Missionary Council (known as CIMI), there have been at least two firearm attacks against Yanomami communities in the Amazon since March. “The indigenous peoples are in the middle of an escalation in conflicts over the past four years, with more brutal aggressions against them lately,” he told the Catholic Herald. The most recent case occurred on May 10, when a group of miners on boats fired on members of the Palimiú community, one of the settlements located in the Yanomami territory – a vast area of 37,000 square miles inhabited by 27,000 people. Part of the attack was recorded by cellphone. The video shows members of the community, including women and children, running as gunshots are heard coming from the nearby river. A few Yanomami men allegedly shot back. Four illegal miners and a member of the Yanomami were wounded.
