Prospectors holed up in the bush. Boats were dragged into the waters of the Uraricoera River to be concealed. Trucks backed up. It was a false alarm. There was no helicopter approaching. The fear was of yet another action by Ibama (Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources) and the federal police forces to remove more than 20,000 invaders from the Yanomami Indigenous Land.
An operation has been ongoing for a week. The clandestine port went again from chaos to confusion in a matter of minutes and resumed its climate of flight and exodus, which has become more and more intense in recent days. The prospectors went on their way back, after months or years of predatory activity in the largest indigenous land in Brazil.
The port of Arame is today, the biggest warehouse for the escape by land and water for the thousands of prospectors who extract gold and cassiterite in the indigenous territory.
The saga continues in other multiple destinations. Folha experienced a day of escape, with the prospectors themselves.
This Sunday (12), Folha's team traveled from Reislândia to the clandestine port in the cabin of a pick-up truck; remained in Arame to document the arrival of the boats and talk with the invaders; and then returned in the back of a second pickup truck used to transport people out of there. The contact with the prospectors, in this context of flight, fear, vulnerability, and endless back and forth, makes it possible to draw a diffuse profile of these people and to understand the difficulties of making their way back after the beginning of the official retaking of the indigenous land.
Guyana and French Guiana will be the destinations for several prospectors who talked to Folha's team. Some of them have already been to mines in those countries, which are close to Roraima – the state is on the country's border with Guyana.
Translated by Cassy Dias