The most controversial blocks for exploration are located offshore at the mouth of the Amazon River basin. Petrobras, a government-controlled oil company, is pushing to begin preliminary drilling in search of new oil reserves.

Over the four-year administration of President Jair Bolsonaro, between 2019 and 2023, 570 Yanomami children perished as 20,000 wildcat miners, known in Brazil as garimpeiros, tore up the forest in what should have been protected Yanomami territory, seeking gold, tin and minerals used in contemporary hi-tech products.

Among the main concerns they mentioned were the role of the laity, especially of women; the contribution of the church on ecology in light of the encyclical “Laudato Si’”; and “spiritual conversation,” a method of discernment that was adopted to structure discussions during the first assembly that could become a major legacy of the synod.

Devastated by malnutrition and preventable diseases like flu, pneumonia, anemia, malaria and diarrhea, the Yanomami people have been called victims of a contemporary genocide by government authorities.

“This has no place in democratic coexistence,” Cardinal Odilo Scherer tweeted on the day of the riots.

After four years of the far-right government of Jair Messias Bolsonaro, Brazilians peacefully welcomed—for the third time—the inauguration of the popular center-left leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on New Year’s Day.