For the investigation and punishment of the Yanomami and Yekuana genocide in Brazil

The federal police, by order of the Minister of Justice, Flavio Dino, launched an investigation into the genocide committed against the Yanomami people, following the dramatic situation that has generated public shock and extensive press coverage. 

The Yanomami, and also the Yekuana, have denounced, following their organizations such as the Hutukara The Yanomami Association, the Urihi Yanomami Association, the Roraima Indigenous Council (CIR), and the Ypasali Sanuma Association denounced the intensification of violence promoted by the Bolsonaro government, the incessant attacks by garimpeiros (illegal miners), and the health system collapse actively and passively fostered by Bolsonaro. Hutukara, together with the Socio-Environmental Institute, launched a campaign to prevent genocide, a tragedy that was denounced but could not be avoided due to the intentions of Jair Messias Bolsonaro's government. 

The first month of the Lula administration was marked by an emphasis on repealing illegal measures promoted by the Bolsonaro government, based on the findings of the transition team's investigations, which revealed a country in ruins. Additionally, plans for a change of course have been initiated, such as combating deforestation and improving relations with Indigenous peoples, notably with the creation of the first Ministry of Indigenous Peoples, headed by Sonia Guajajara, a leader of the Indigenous movement and federal deputy for São Paulo, and the nomination of Joenia Wapishana, a federal deputy in the previous legislature, to preside over the National Foundation for Indigenous Peoples (Funai). Previously unpublished documents have been released demonstrating the Bolsonaro government's negligence in creating scarcity, hunger, and the health crisis, as well as military corruption and a dire situation among the Yanomami people. 

The investigation into the genocide of the Yanomami people and the holding of Bolsonaro and public officials accountable must also be accompanied by the demarcation of 13 Indigenous lands in this first month, as Lula committed to Indigenous peoples. The investigation into the Indigenous genocide, which begins with the struggle for survival of the Yanomami and Yekuana, must be expanded to include the investigation of genocides committed against other peoples as well.   

The Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB) has denounced Bolsonaro at the International Criminal Court in The Hague for the crime of genocide, and the Yanomami case was one of the most well-documented. The Court has yet to respond to the Indigenous people's complaint, and this is yet another call for these voices to be heard, for the cry of these voices to be heard, since many of them were silenced during this process of genocide. 

The issue of the genocide of indigenous peoples in Bolsonaro's Brazil was denounced from the very beginning by the CLACSO Working Group Political ecologies from the South/Abya-Yala, with the statement of May 14, 2020, he first issue of the Sentipensar-nos Tierra Bulletin and in the period 2023-2025 it will be the subject of a specific line of research on illegal economies, crimes and the State.

The Yanomami have denounced attacks by illegal miners using weapons exclusively reserved for the Brazilian army, and the Brazilian army offered no protection to the border territory. At the same time, the institutional security cabinet, coordinated under the Bolsonaro administration by General Augusto Heleno, authorized illegal mining operations in the vicinity of Yanomami territory. The close relationship between drug trafficking, illegal mining, the army, and the government creates a landscape of extreme violence that has devastated the lives of the Yanomami and the Yekuana, as well as so many other peoples, and with them, all of humanity. 

El CLACSO Working Group Political ecologies from the South/Abya-Yala It expresses its solidarity with the Yanomami, the Yekuana and all indigenous peoples and supports the Brazilian government's initiative to investigate the crime of genocide, reinforcing the need for thorough investigations to uncover the omissions and actions of state and private agents that have generated the humanitarian crisis and genocide.

As a result of all this, we endorse this urgent manifesto.

January 31, 2023
CLACSO Working Groups 
Political ecologies from the South/Abya-Yala
Critical studies of rural development

This text expresses the position of the aforementioned Working Groups and not necessarily that of the centers and institutions that make up the CLACSO international network, its Steering Committee or its Executive Secretariat.