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A6 WORLD NEWS
Thursday 9 February 2023

Brazil pushes illegal miners out of Yanomami territory

By FABIANO MAISONNAVE indicate some of the gold
and EDMAR BARROS miners were ignoring Presi-
ALTO ALEGRE, Brazil (AP) dent Luiz Inácio Lula da Sil-
— Armed government of- va’s promise to expel them
ficials with Brazil’s justice, after years of neglect un-
Indigenous and environ- der his predecessor, Bolso-
ment ministries Wednesday naro, who tried to legalize
began to press thousands the activity.
of illegal gold miners out of Other miners, however,
Yanomami Indigenous terri- sensed it was better to re-
tory, citing widespread river turn to the city. On Tuesday,
contamination, famine and The Associated Press visited
disease they have brought a makeshift port alongside
to one of the most isolated the Uraricoera River, ac-
groups in the world. cessible only by three-hour
People involved in illegal drive on a dirt road. Doz-
gold dredging streamed ens of gold miners arrived
away from the territory on over the course of the day,
foot. The operation could some of them after walking
take months. There are be- for days through the forest,
lieved to be some 20,000 en route to state capital
people engaged in the ac- Boa Vista.
tivity, often using toxic mer- One of them, João Batista
cury to separate the gold. Miners leave the Yanomami Indigenous territory ahead of expected operations against illegal Costa, 61, told reporters
An estimated 30,000 Yano- mining in Alto Alegre, Roraima state, Brazil, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. the Yanomami are dying
mami people live in Brazil’s Associated Press of hunger and that recent
largest Indigenous terri- National Foundation of In- discovered a helicopter with a ton of food, freez- emergency food shipments
tory, which covers an area digenous Peoples and the hidden in the forest and set ers, generators, and inter- have not been enough.
roughly the size of Portugal National Guard found an it ablaze. net antennas. The cargo The federal government
and stretches across Ror- airplane, a bulldozer, and Ibama established a will now supply the federal has declared a public
aima and Amazonas states makeshift lodges and han- checkpoint next to a Yano- agents. No more boats car- health emergency for the

in the northwest corner of gars, and destroyed them mami village on the Urari- rying fuel and equipment Yanomami people, who
Brazil’s Amazon. as permitted by law. Two coera River to interrupt the will be allowed to proceed are suffering from malnutri-
The authorities the Brazilian guns and three boats with miners’ supply chain there. past the blockade. tion and diseases such as
environmental agency Ib- 5,000 liters (1,320 gallons) of Agents seized the 12-me- The large amount of sup- malaria as a consequence
ama, with support from the fuel were seized. They also ter (39-foot) boats, loaded plies bound upriver could of illegal mining.q

5 priests sentenced to 10 years for conspiracy in Nicaragua

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A Ni- tests. in a crackdown on the arrested last year, and all The government arrested
caraguan court has sen- A human rights group in the church by President Daniel were stripped of the right dozens of opposition lead-
tenced four Roman Catho- Central American coun- Ortega. to ever hold political office. ers in 2021, including seven
lic priests to 10 years in pris- try quickly denounced the On Sunday, a fifth priest The Nicaraguan Human potential presidential can-
on on conspiracy charges sentences handed down was sentenced to 10 years Rights Center described didates. They were sen-
stemming from long-stand- Monday and made known in prison on the same the sentences as “a legal tenced to prison last year
ing government allegations by lawyers of the Legal De- charges. aberration.” in quick trials that also were
that the church backed il- fense Unit. The priests were convict- “This is an insult to the law, closed to the public.
legal pro-democracy pro- It was the latest chapter ed in closed-door trials in an insult to people’s intel- Ortega has contended
which government-ap- ligence, an insult to the in- the pro-democracy pro-
pointed defenders acted ternational community and tests were carried out with
as the priests’ attorneys. the international agencies foreign backing and with
Those sentenced Monday for the protection of hu- the support of the Catholic
had worked with Matagal- man rights,” the center said Church. Last year, he ex-
pa Bishop Rolando Álvarez, in a statement Tuesday. pelled the nuns from Moth-
and one had been rector Alvarez, the bishop, had er Teresa’s Sisters of Charity
of the privately run Juan been a key religious voice religious order and the pa-
Pablo II University in the in discussions of Nicara- pal nuncio, the Vatican’s
capital of Managua. gua’s future since 2018, top diplomat in Nicaragua.
Álvarez is under house ar- when a wave of protests Last August, Pope Francis
rest on charges of conspir- against Ortega’s govern- told thousands of people
acy and “damaging the ment led to a sweeping gathered in St. Peter’s
Nicaraguan government crackdown on opponents. Square that he was closely
and society,” and is set to On Sunday, Rev. Óscar following with “worry and
be sentenced soon. Danilo Benavidez, a priest sorrow” events in Nicara-
Two seminary students and in Mulukuku in northern Ni- gua that involve “persons
A poster featuring Bishop Rolando Alvarez and Pope Francis a cameraman who worked caragua, was sentenced and institutions.”
hangs inside the Cathedral in Matagalpa, Nicaragua, Aug. 19, for the diocese were also for conspiracy and spread- He didn’t mention the den-
2022. sentenced Monday. All six ing false information. He tentions of the priests or
Associated Press of the defendants were had been arrested Aug. 14. Álvarez.q