Yukpa Indians Threatened in Venezuela
3/6/97
*******************************
RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Headline: Yukpa Indians Threatened in Venezuela
Source: VENEZUELA'S INTERNET NEWS
Date: 3/6/97
It's history repeating itself .... the extermination of indigenous peoples
by the ruling majority in order to get at the material wealth of their
land. Sound familiar huh? The Yukpa people occupy only a fraction of the
land that they previous had throughout the flatlands of the basin of Lake
Maracaibo. Cattle ranchers through time have pushed them into the
mountains of the Perija Range: destroying communities, killing and raping,
hunting them down like game, all with the "look the other way attitude of
the government". And if that wasn't enough, disease finishes off the rest.
_______________________________________________________________________
March 5, 1997 - VENEZUELA'S INTERNET NEWS - VHeadline No.207
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
Editor: Roy S. Carson VHeadline No.207 March 5, 1997
_______________________________________________________________________
VHeadline/VENews Inc - CCS 1354 - P O Box 025323 - Miami, Fl 33102-
5323
Apartado 60.566 Altamira - YV-1060 CARACAS - Venezuela
Email address : News.Desk@VHeadline.com.ve
telephone/telefax 00 58/2-283.2758
URL http://www.vheadline.com.ve
_______________________________________________________________________
Caracas: Wednesday, March 5, 1997 -- Professor Jorge Hinestroza of the
(Venezuelan) Front for the Defense of the Perija (Frente por la Defensa de
la Sierra Perija) says the Bari and Yucpa native indian nations are
offering stiff resistance to the coal and oil companies anxious to operate
on their lands. The tense situation has been highlighted by the recent
suspension of the constitutional guarantees (freedom of movement,
inviolability of the home and individual liberties).
THE PRESSURE TIGHTENS
"Tension is high among the communities of the Aricuaiza sector of the
Perija Range due to the threat of military intervention to allow the
MAICCA company to start mining coal -- and, later on, to drill for oil --
after President Rafael Caldera's government issued a decree suspending
Constitutional Guarantees. This transitional measure, taken within the
Perija Range area, limits individual freedoms, the right to move about
freely, protection of the home against raids without a court order (mostly
on the pretext of fighting drug-trafficking."
NO VICTIMS SO FAR
Indigenous leaders meet at the border
VHeadline/VENews has discovered that only last week, leaders of the Bari,
who live on both sides of the Colombian-Venezuelan border, met to discuss
news of a meeting allegedly held between identified "hit-men" and
(government) agents with known "genocidal tendencies" to prepare an attack
on the Karanhakae community in the Aricuaiza zone -- one of 67 indigenous
communities. They have been expecting an attack and met to organize
resistance to the coal company's plans.
PERSECUTION ON THE HEELS OF THE SUSPENSION OF GUARANTEES
Professor Hinestroza says "The suspension, together with the accusations
that the Yukpa and Bari nations are aiding and abetting Colombian
guerrillas and drug-traffickers (and are therefore, "subversives" and
"ecologists"!), is a well-worn method used by mining interests to
undermine opposition and to harass environmental activists of the Perija
Range."
"The native indian nations are promoting numerous meetings with Venzuelans
who are opposed to oil and coal exploitation in the Perija, and who
support their struggle for recovery of their ancient lands -- their last
reservation of ecological living has been threatened under constant
pressure from the mining and oil companies who are now ganging up with
cattle ranchers ahead of a new offensive.
Quite simply the indian nations want their land back.
They did in fact get an official undertaking from the Local Government and
Legislative Assembly in the Toromo Agreement of 1993, witnessed by the
(Roman Catholic) Church, Zulia University officials and the National Guard
(GN), and were at that time given guarantees that the mining and oil plans
would not go through.
They are now taking special measures to initiate necessary legal measures,
asking for international solidarity based on the following arguments:
1) The almost certain negative reply of the Venezuelan courts, taking into
account the present level of corruption of Venezuela's judicial system.
2) The Venezuelan Military High Command's support for the transnational
companies.
3) The important influence and interference of the ex-US Ambassador in
Caracas, Mr. Jeffrey Davidow, in Venezuela's economic, political and
military affairs.
4) The well known family connections between President Rafael Caldera's
family and the coal companies.
5) The campaign against indigenous resistance leaders and their allies in
the universities and popular sectors. "Contracts" are out on ecologists
and indigenous for the supposed crime of impeding the progress of the oil
and coal companies and the advance of a fistful of big landowners on
indian lands.
DEATH THREATS
Hit list:
Romulo Romero (head of the Pisina community),
Pablo Castillo (Bari leader), and
Daniel Aruri Bachatiba, (leader and medicine man) -- both these men are
from the Karanhakae community.
Lusbi Portillo, Arts Graduate and Professor at Zulia University, an
ecologist and well-known defender of native indian rights.
Their human rights have been under attack by the authorities for
activities in defense of the Perija Range.
"We would like those organizations and persons involved in Human Rights to
be on full alert against abuses and attacks on the lives of these people."
"A Front for the Defense of the Perija (Mountain Range & Peoples) has been
set up to undertake solidarity actions and legal and institutional
initiatives to stop the mineral and oil exploitation in the Perija
ecosystems."
"This front has managed to bring together the majority of the region's
social forces who see a new menace facing the Hydrographical Basin of Lake
Maracaibo (Zulia State), which has traditionally been hit by oil slicks,
petrochemical wastes and coal exploitations already under full steam to
the north of the Range (Guasare coalmines)."
Prof. Jorge Hinestroza
Universidad de Zulia
Maracaibo, Venezuela
MAILTO:jhinestr@luz.ve
------------------------------------------------------------------------
In their first communique, the front calls for urgent solidarity with the
Bari and Yukpa nations of the Perija Range under threat of being thrown
off their ancestral lands by coal and oil exploitation. Furthermore, the
ecosystem is in danger from contamination, especially the hydrographical
basin of Maracaibo Lake.
Please send fax or letters expressing support for the following points:
1) revocation of the coal extraction concessions granted to MASIP-
INTERCHEM (MAICCA), CONSULMINCA, CARBOCA, CORPOZULIA and others. The area
covers the foothills of the Perija Range from the village of El Llano
(Muncipality of Machiques de Perija) to the Rio del Oro (Muncipality of
Jesus Maria Semprun).
2) Elimination of the Zone of Mineral Interest (ZONA DE INTERES MINERAL)
and the setting up by decree of an agricultural farming zone instead.
3) A decree granting collective property rights to the Bari and Yupkas of
the Perija range of the lands within the demarcation (PICA) undertaken by
these communities and mapped out to a scale of 1:1000.000 by the
(Venezuelan) Ministry of Agriculture and the National Agrarian Institute
(IAN).
4) An end to hostilities by the military and the police against members
and leaders of the indigenous communities and against citizens who
undertake solidarity work in defense of the Perija Range environment.
Please send your letters to:
Dr. Rafael Caldera
Presidente de la Republica de Venezuela
Palacio de Miraflores
Caracas, Venezuela
Fax: 00 58/2-801.3644
Or contact your nearest Venezuelan Embassy or Consulate
------------------------------------------------------------------------
FRENTE POR LA DEFENSA DE LA SIERRA DE PERIJA
------------------------------------------------------------------------
John E. Lattke, Instituto de Zoologia Agricola, Universidad Central de
Venezuela, Maracay
Direccion actual/Present Address: Dept. Entomology, University of
California, Davis, CA 95616 USA
jelattkebravo@ucdavis.edu