This is the first in a three-part series on Roraima in the context of Brazil’s general election. The task was funded through the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Journalism Fund.
Normandy, Brazil – Cheers and applause greet Joenia Wapichana as she arrives at a political event in the indigenous territory of Raposa Serra do Sol in northern Brazil.
In 2018, Wapichana became the country’s first indigenous woman elected to Congress; He is now seeking a momentary mandate for the Amazonian state of Roraima, where far-right President Jair Bolsonaro has more than in any other state, according to recent polls.
But Wapichana says Bolsonaro has been a crisis for Brazil’s indigenous communities, as his pro-mining rhetoric fuels the expansion of illegal gold mining operations on indigenous lands.
“From the moment he opens his mouth to communicate the absurd, illegal and illicit that he supports, he puts the lives of indigenous peoples at risk,” he told Al Jazeera in a rare interview with foreign media.
Highlighting the importance of indigenous political representation, he added: “13% of Brazil are indigenous territories, yet in Congress our participation is made in Congress. “
Indigenous advocacy teams are hailing Wapichana as a pioneer, and this year a record number of indigenous applicants, more than 180, have registered to run in Brazil’s Oct. 2 election. However, with campaigns with small budgets, no classic political party design, and wealthy donors, many face an uphill battle.
In Kurima, nearly two-thirds of the others are up for Bolsonaro’s re-election, while only 18% are national favorite and former left-wing president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, according to the latest Ipec opinion polls.
“It’s a border state with a basically conservative population that basically stores the president’s perspectives on family, land use and indigenous rights,” political scientist Paulo Racoski, who teaches at the Federal Institute of Roraima, told Al Jazeera.
He pointed to several of the claims beyond Bolsonaro, adding that the other indigenous peoples have too much land for their other peoples and that if he were the “king” of Roraima, their economy would rival that of Japan or China because of the state’s mineral wealth.
“Although they’re usually fake, those are messages that resonate,” Racoski said.
In the sixteenth century, the Spanish conquistadors toured Roraima in search of the mythical and gold-rich kingdom of El Dorado. At the end of the twentieth century, thousands of immigrants from all over Brazil, and especially from the poorest northeastern region, arrived here en masse. in search of opportunities. Many ended up running like gold miners in the Yanomami indigenous territory, which since Bolsonaro’s election has experienced a further increase in illegal mining and related violence.
Today, although no legal gold mines are mined in Roraima, a seven-meter-high monument dedicated to miners in front of the legislative meeting of the capital, Boa Vista, is emblematic of the state’s dating with mining.
“Politically, it is complicated for a candidate to confront the interests of wild mining in the state,” Alisson Marugal, a federal prosecutor founded in Roraima, told Al Jazeera. “It plays a role in the economy. “
Last October, Bolsonaro saw illegal mining in Raposa Serra do Sol and touted a bill to legalize mining and other industrial-scale activities on indigenous lands.
“If you need to sow, you will sow,” the president, dressed in an indigenous headdress, told a gathered crowd. “If you go to mine, you go to mine. “
According to the Indigenous Council of Roraima, the state’s largest indigenous rights group, more than 4,000 illegal miners have operated in the Raposa Serra do Sol reserve since Bolsonaro took it over in 2019. those operations.
“The invasion of illegal miners is causing environmental degradation, deforestation, pollution of rivers, streams and lakes, accumulation of farm animals and theft of vehicles, elevated rates of malaria, STDs and COVID-19 in communities,” the report said, a copy of which it noted through Al Jazeera.
It highlights “drug trafficking, the presence of criminal gangs and firearms . . . increased violence in communities, death threats and persecution of leaders. “
In April, three other people were shot dead in the territory, in a homicide that the government suspects is related to illicit mining debts.
While federal agencies carry out common crackdowns to combat illegal mining, there has been one in Raposa Serra do Sol for more than a year, the government confirmed. Federal police told Al Jazeera that the last operation to combat illegal mining in the reserve took place last year, however, it did not comment further.
This has led some citizens to take the issue into their own hands. In a recent example, a surveillance organization organized through indigenous guards in Raposa Serra do Sol in June burned a raft used by illegal miners to mine gold in the Ireng River, near the border with Guyana.
During Roraima’s recent rainy season, Al Jazeera joined 3 indigenous guides on an expedition across floodplains to one of the many illegal mining sites at the foot of a sacred local mountain known as Serra do Atola, and probed the domain with a drone. The destruction was shocking: the mining camp opened like a brown scar on the otherwise green landscape, with dozens of mining pits, some covered with a blue tarp to protect the miners from the elements.
“A lot of other people pass through here,” said one of the indigenous guides, who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons. The guides said that due to the recent heavy rains, the number of miners had been temporarily reduced, but that it would return for the dry season.
Last year, Amazon’s army command, federal police and environmental agencies raided the site and discovered 400 people, precision scales, digging pits, gold and poisonous mercury for gold processing. Months later, an investigation through the Associated Press found that the mining camp was back in operation, with portable turbines for staff to force jackhammers to break through the rocks.
The Indigenous Council of Roraima claims that businessmen and politicians outside the reservation financed mining, taking a percentage of the gold extracted, while the indigenous people were exploited as reasonable labor.
“There is no indigenous user here who has enriched themselves through illegal mining,” Bartolomeu da Silva Tomaz, Roraima’s candidate as Brazil’s indigenous candidate for the Senate, told Al Jazeera.
“The other people who benefit from illegal mining are the entrepreneurs. . . the corporations that sell machinery, engines and equipment, the corporations that sell fuel. . . these guys are getting er,” he said.
If elected, he says he would make the removal of illegal miners from indigenous lands a very sensible precedent, an ambitious position in a state whose economy is sustained in part through illegal mining, according to federal prosecutors.
Today, more than 26,000 indigenous people from five other ethnic groups live in the 17,470 km2 (6,745 sq mi) territory of Raposa Serra do Sol, which borders Venezuela and Guyana. Unlike many Amazonian indigenous lands covered by lush rainforest, Raposa Serra do Sol is primarily a tropical savannah. Cattle ranching, linked to deforestation, is also allowed in the region.
Across Brazil, home to some 900,000 indigenous people from more than three hundred ethnic groups, Roraima has the largest indigenous population, with more than 55,000. Almost part of its territory includes indigenous lands, but there are no indigenous representatives in its 24-seat state assembly.
“Today we have a voice in Brasilia, which is our legislator Joenia Wapichana,” Aldenir Wapichana, an indigenous leader who is running as the state legislator, told Al Jazeera. “But at the state level, we still don’t have decent representation. “. . . It is to protect our rights, in health, in education. “
He praised the paintings of Lula da Silva, who is running to oust Bolsonaro and is leading the polls by a double-digit margin, making sure Raposa Serra do Sol gets the prestige of full coverage in 2005. Bolsonaro has said in the past that he will “cancel” this demarcation, even if he does not have the strength to make this change, and will arm local peasants “with weapons. “
In Brazil’s 2018 elections, Normandy, Uiramuta and Pacaraima, within the barriers of Raposa Serra do Sol, voted against Bolsonaro, the only 3 municipalities in Roraima that did so. A rock painted with the words “Bolsonaro out” stands near a front of Normandy.
However, public opinion about Bolsonaro is divided in this region.
Last year, the United Indian Defense Society of Roraima, which opposes the leadership of the Indigenous Council and defends mining and other activities, invited Bolsonaro to illegal mining in the community of Flexal, where he promoted the bill to legalize mining. The group’s leader, Irisnaide Silva, is also running for Congress in opposition to Joenia Wapichana.
In March, the Brazilian awarded medals to Silva, Bolsonaro and an organization of ministers for “indigenous merit,” drawing contempt from indigenous advocacy organizations.
Although Silva responded to Al Jazeera’s request for comment, she publicly described herself as “the indigenous woman who stands for development. “
In Brazil, political parties obtain public investment based on the number of seats they occupy in Congress. Joenia Wapichana’s Sustainability Network has only two seats in the lower house, compared to 77 for Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party.
Applicants can also obtain personal donations from individuals, a formula that tends to favor those who constitute mining or agricultural interests. In addition, applicants can use their own money to help fund their campaigns.
Joenia Wapichana, who has declared 20,000 Brazilian reais ($3,900) in assets this year, is competing with Rodrigo Cataratas, a pro-mining businessman and supporter of Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party, which has declared 33 million Brazilian reais ($6. 45 million) in assets, for one of 8 congressional seats for Roraima. The fight promises to be difficult and will be prevented on Election Day.
If re-elected with enough votes in Congress, Bolsonaro could try to pass his long-planned bill to allow mining and other commercial activities on indigenous lands. As is the case in many indigenous territories, official requests from corporations to exploit Raposa Serra no Sol, adding proposals for gold and diamond mines, have risen since Bolsonaro took office, according to data compiled by the Watchdog Amazonia Minada and reported by Al Jazeera.
Some worry that a long-planned hydroelectric dam on the Cotingo River, a strategic allocation through mining interests, could also be resurrected if Bolsonaro wins, posing a flood threat to many communities in Raposa Serra do Sol.
“If Bolsonaro is re-elected, we will see a continuation of anti-indigenous policies,” Antenor Vaz, a former coordinator of Brazilian indigenous firm Funai who now works as an independent consultant, told Al Jazeera. “Raposa Serra do Sol would come under even greater pressure from illegal gold miners as well as large landowners outside the reserve. “
Back at his crusade event, Wapichana argues that indigenous people in Congress are of vital importance, whether for Brazil or for the planet as a whole.
“Many other non-indigenous people have the same interests as other indigenous people, such as environmental preservation,” he said. “The planet is going through an environmental crisis and we know that much depends on the coverage of indigenous territories.