Brazilian government cracks down on illegal gold miners

Armed Brazilian government officials on Wednesday pushed illegal gold miners out of the country’s Yanomami Indigenous Territory. Brazil’s Indigenous and environmental agencies paired up with the country’s national guard to complete the operation. The government claims to have expelled many of the roughly 20,000 miners from the area while seizing a couple of guns, some boats loaded with equipment, and thousands of liters of fuel. An airplane, a helicopter, and some makeshift buildings were destroyed.

Who are the Yanomami people? The roughly 30,000-person tribe lives in an area about the size of Indiana. The area is Brazil’s largest indigenous territory. The Brazilian government on Jan. 20 announced a public health emergency for the Yanomami people. The government crackdown in part sought to halt malaria and other diseases that the illegal gold miners have brought to the Yanomami people.

Dig deeper: Listen to Emma Freire and Mary Reichard’s conversation on The World and Everything in It podcast about recent political unrest in Brazil.