The shocking images of death and destruction of the Yanomami people and their lands that recently swept the world reestablish a tragedy foretold.

Illegal miners have been poisoning rivers with mercury and wrecking the Amazon rainforest for years, bringing armed violence, sexual abuse, and illnesses like tuberculosis, malaria, and COVID. And as illegal Amazon mining flourished in Brazil during Jair Bolsonaro’s regime, a grave humanitarian crisis emerged in Yanomami territory.

The Yanomami people lived in almost complete isolation from the Western world until the 1980s, when gold was found on their land. Over the decades since this discovery, some 40,000 illegal miners invaded their lands in successive waves, bringing destruction and genocidal violence.

On January 20, Brazil’s Health Ministry declared a medical emergency in the territory.