Venezuela Indians topple pylons to halt power line
© 2000 Reuters Limited
September 15, 2000
CARACAS - Indians in Venezuela's remote Amazon region have knocked down seven electricity pylons in renewed protest against a high-voltage power line to Brazil being built through their ancestral homeland, a spokesman for the local Indigenous Federation said yesterday.
Indigenous leaders said construction of the 470-mile (750-km) link was ruining their livelihood and affecting a fragile ecosystem across tracts of national parks and Amazonian forests.
"A group of Indians opposed to the project knocked down the towers" on Wednesday morning in an area close to the Brazilian border, said the spokesman, who requested anonymity.
The action was confirmed by state power company Edelca, in charge of the delayed project. A spokesman said it was the first such incident since five electricity towers were knocked down a year ago in a similar protest.
The $400 million project to supply energy to northeastern Brazil and international gold mining companies in Venezuela was supposed to have been completed in December 1998.
The line runs through Canaima National Park, Venezuela's top tourist destination and home to Angel Falls, the world's tallest waterfall at over 3,200 feet (975 meters). Canaima was declared a World Heritage Site in 1994.
About 24,000 Indians live in the area.