This is part five of a series on the operation to evict illegal gold miners from Munduruku Indigenous territories. Read part one, part two, part three, and part four. “We’re sicker than before.” This is how Indigenous leader Hidelmara Kirixi described health conditions in Munduruku communities despite the Brazilian government’s recent raids to halt illegal mining that caused widespread mercury contamination. “Pregnant women are no longer able to have a child by normal delivery because of this.” A wide range of diseases linked to pollution and ecological destruction caused by illegal gold mining spread in her community in the Amazonian state of Pará, she said. They include diarrhea, itchiness, flu, fever, childhood paralysis and brain problems. “Children are also born with these diseases,” Kirixi, one of the coordinators of the Wakoborũn Munduruku Women’s Association, told Mongabay in a video interview. In November 2024, the federal government launched an operation to oust illegal gold miners from the Munduruku Indigenous Territory. Authorities destroyed 90 mining camps, 15 vessels, 27 units of heavy machinery and 224 motorized pumps, and imposed fines totalling 24.2 million reais ($4.3 million). However, there was little government action to address the health issues in the aftermath of the destruction wrought by the gold mines, Indigenous leaders and experts say. “They didn’t bring any public policies to the territory, they didn’t bring health [programs], they didn’t bring food, they didn’t bring anything,” Alessandra Korap, a Munduruku leader and president of the Pariri Indigenous Association, told Mongabay on the sidelines…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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