In the Amazonian town of Mucajaí, the prospect of a political shift in the upcoming presidential runoff has created a stark divide. For many residents, the potential victory of Flávio Bolsonaro represents an economic lifeline. Rosimari Monteiro, a 38-year-old local, spent the night before the first round of voting restless with anticipation, rising at dawn to cast her ballot for the candidate she identifies as the future of the nation. She recalls being the first at her polling station, viewing her vote for candidate 22 as a positive step toward securing better opportunities for her children. “I was the first person to vote at my polling station … I voted 22, so we got off to a positive start,” recalls Monteiro, as she stands in her sitting room with her two young daughters. Including Bolsonaro’s pledges to fight crime and create jobs, monteiro gave several reasons for her decision. It became really hard to find jobs,” complains Monteiro, a driving instructor whose brother-in-law worked in the mines.
The town of Mucajaí stands as a significant political stronghold for the Bolsonaro family, with nearly 79% of the town’s 11,734 votes in the first round going to the far-right contender. This popularity extends across Roraima, where 14 out of 15 municipalities supported his platform. Residents like Monteiro point to promises of job creation and improved security as primary motivators, but the deeper appeal lies in the potential reopening of lucrative industries that were curtailed during the current administration. In fact, this sun-baked roadside settlement is where Bolsonaro secured his biggest proportional victory in Roraima, the northern state where the would-be president also registered his best nationwide result. Where 14 of 15 municipalities backed the far-right politician, but one issue explains why the son of the disgraced former president Jair Bolsonaro is so popular here and across Roraima. From January, when the new president takes power, at least seven of the nine Amazon states, including Roraima, will have pro-Bolsonaro governors. Where small evangelical temples are found on most streets, similar views are heard in Mucajaí.
Historically, Mucajaí served as a major staging ground for the illegal gold rush that saw thousands of miners infiltrate the Yanomami Indigenous territory during the 2019-2022 presidency of Jair Bolsonaro. The surrounding rainforests were dotted with clandestine airstrips used to ferry miners, machinery, and supplies into lands inhabited by the Yanomami for at least a millennium. This period of intense exploitation brought severe health crises to the 32,000 Indigenous residents, including widespread malaria, mercury contamination, and starvation. Bringing malaria, mercury poisoning, hunger and destruction to its 32,000 Indigenous people, prospectors used the meandering Mucajaí River to sneak into those protected Indigenous lands near the border with Venezuela. Miners and sex workers into jungles that the Yanomami’s ancestors are thought to have occupied for at least 1,000 years, ranches carved out of Mucajaí’s rainforests conceal clandestine airstrips from which helicopters and planes ferried supplies.
Following his 2022 election, incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva initiated a major crackdown to evict illegal miners, an effort he characterized as essential to halt a genocide against the Yanomami. This environmental offensive successfully reduced deforestation to levels not seen since the late 1980s. However, for many in Mucajaí, this policy resulted in severe economic hardship. Monteiro and others in the region hope that a Bolsonaro win on Sunday will end these restrictions, effectively allowing the gold rush to resume so that locals can return to work. We want a light at the end of the tunnel. The leftwinger launched a crackdown to evict those miners and cripple a multi-billion dollar illegal industry he blamed for a “genocide” against the Yanomami, when Lula beat Bolsonaro’s father in the 2022 election.
Bolsonaro has signaled support for these sentiments, recently vowing to transform the region’s natural riches into personal wealth for his supporters, while dismissing Lula’s commitment to the Amazon. His platform resonates with supporters like Gomes, who plans to join a celebratory car procession to Boa Vista if the candidate secures a win. This support is further reinforced by the influence of evangelical churches in the region, which view Bolsonaro as a defender of traditional Christian values. Speaking in the Amazon on Tuesday, Bolsonaro vowed to be a president “who will turn the riches God has given us into riches for every single one of you”, adding: “Lula couldn’t give a shit about the Amazon.”. With prosperity theology striking a chord among those on Brazil’s fast-growing agricultural frontier, the evangelical church’s rapid advance into the Amazon has also bolstered support. A political activist and pastor in Boa Vista, considers Bolsonaro a champion of the Christian values his church fights “tooth and nail” to defend. “Bolsonaro is practically a unanimity within our congregation … He’s the fresh oxygen we need to breathe,” Gentil adds, citing the politician’s opposition to same-sex marriage, abortion and drugs, leandro Gentil.
In contrast, Indigenous leaders and environmental advocates view a possible Bolsonaro presidency as a catastrophic threat. Júnior Hekurari, a Yanomami leader, warns that such a result would essentially be a death sentence for his people and other Indigenous groups across Brazil. Reports from the ground already indicate concerning activity, with Yanomami villagers noting an increase in suspicious communications from illegal prospectors following the October 4 first round, where Bolsonaro led with 47% against Lula’s 45.1%. According to “By voting 22, Brazilians are signing a death certificate for the Yanomami, and Indigenous people in general,”, The Yanomami leader Júnior Hekurari, 40, who was on the frontline of efforts to protect his people durin. Congress will feature a record number of rightwing politicians hostile to Indigenous rights and environmental issues. As happened under Jair Bolsonaro, who is serving a 27-year sentence for plotting a coup after the, he fears environmental and Indigenous protection officials who have led Lula’s crackdown will be sidelined and persecuted. According to marinalva Ferreira Barbosa, a 40-year-old cleaner who worships at a local branch of the powerful Assemblies of God church,, She opposes Lula because he champions “things forbidden by the Bible”. “Like men getting with men, women with women – this kind of filth,” adds Barbosa, who works in the Paradise Pousada, a 15-room hotel that, because of the mining crackdown, is empty.
Nilton Tubino, who has spearheaded the government’s anti-mining operations since 2023, identifies Mucajaí as the nerve center for this illicit trade. He cautions that if Bolsonaro prevails, the protective units currently enforcing the crackdown risk being dismantled or persecuted. Marina Silva, a former environment minister, has described the situation as a lethal threat to the culture, existence, and way of life of Indigenous communities. According to nilton Tubino, who has led Lula’s anti-mining crusade since 2023,, “strange movements” have been detected on the outskirts of the territory, reinforcing suspicions miners are gearing up to pillage precious metals and tin ore used to make mobile phones.
Despite the prevailing tension, prominent Indigenous figures remain defiant.
Davi Kopenawa, a 70-year-old Yanomami leader, has pledged his support for Lula, warning that a Bolsonaro victory could incite violence and bloodshed.
His son, Dário Kopenawa, notes that their association headquarters in Boa Vista has already been fortified with high walls and electric fencing as a precaution. Wapichana, 53, asserts that Indigenous communities have long histories of struggle and will continue to resist any efforts to marginalize them, noting that their resilience is the reason they continue to exist today.
