Venezuela: we denounce the forced delocation of indigenous
by wayùu of the Perija Mountains
March 21, 2007
We, the indigenous Wayúu inhabitants of the Socuy, Mache and Cachirí river baisns in the Sierra de Perijá, in the western state of Zulia, in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, inform all women and men of the world that our humble community, just as the Yukpa and Barí communities, will be forcefully relocated by the national government so that it may hand over our territories to multi-national coal companies, because the innards of the imperial monster needs more cheap coal to continue plaguing the peoples of the world with death, misery, and hunger.
There cannot be a XXI Century Socialism in our country without us, the indigenous – and if there are no rights to autonomous territories, free of mines and large hereditary landholders, only some expressed in legal papers – but
as a nuisance to miners, oil people, gas people and large hereditary land holders, today they wish to eliminate us with their racist tale of sovereignty and national unity, as if we the indigenous are not also sons the god Maleiwua, Guaicaipuro, and Bolivar.
In these moments, the National Government, thru its Corporation of Development of the Zulia Region (Corpozulia), heads a final attack along with multi-national company operators against our humble indigenous families, to obligate us to sell them our lands, just as they imposed on us years ago during the opening of the Paso Diablo
Mine* and the North Mine in the Guasare river basin, and more recently in the Las Carmelitas Mine near the Los Tres Rios dam.
We denounce the genocide and ecocide that is deepening in the foothills of the Sierra de Perijá along the border region with Colombia on the western arm of the great Andean Mountain range by the hands of Corpozulia, Carbozuliam Anglo American Coal, Inter-American Coal, Peabody, Carbonífera Caño Seco represented by the former president of Telecom Eiram, Brendan Hynes from Ireland, Corporación Carbones del Perijá of Chile represented by María Victoria Quiroga M. and Álvaro Guell V., Energy Resources, among others.
Wayúu Indigenous Organization of the Socuy and Maché Maikiratasalii
Autonomous Indigenous Territories
Free of Mines and Large Landholders.
* Paso Diablo Mine is owned impart by Peabody Coal/Peabody Energy Corporation.
http://www.peabodyenergy.com/Operations/CoalOperations-Venezuela.asp
http://tierraylibertad.contrapoder.org.ve
(source)
NO MORE NEW COAL MINES IN VENEZUELA
In Caracas we buried the coal phantom.
The Venezuelan Minister of the Environment prohibits the opening of new coal mines in the state of Zulia
by:
Sociedad Homo et Natura
Environmental Collectives
Indigenous Communities of Wayúu and Yukpa of Sierra de Perij’a
Caracas, March 21, 2007 - By presidential decree, the Minister of the Environment, Yubiri Ortega de Carrizalez, announced yesterday before the Yukpa and Wayúu indigenous people of the Sierra de Perijá, the prohibition to open new coal mines in the state of Zulia. Additionally, by the same presidential mandate, it was rejected the expansion of the Guasare and Paso Diablo mines projected by Corpozulia and Caribozulia.
Yesterday, the indigenous resistance of the Perija, the social movements and the ecologists who mobilized to take over the Ministry against the mining industry, felt that they had buried the coal phantom and its entire threat in Caracas, which for years had hurt the indigenous peoples of the state of Zulia. However, until the current mining concessions in indigenous lands are not revoked by decree, the fight goes on.
In a meeting with indigenous leaders from the Ukpas and Wayuu, the Home et Natura Society and alternative community media outlets, the Minister of the Environment indicated that she has hope in the new model ordered by President Chavez, which is already underway in the fields of ecology, agriculture, tourism, and sustainable development.
We know that the transnational powers interested in the coal in Zulia will keep promoting the survival, by all means, of their coal mega-project. There are still questions on the future of the Nigales bridge, America Harbor (currently Bolivar Harbor), and the Zulia railways, all of which are part of the expansion plans of the coal mines that were scheduled to open in indigenous territories that have now been prohibited by the presidential mandate.
The downfall of the miserable
Martinez Mendoza threw his final thrust by organizing a paid counter demonstration, forcing the Mara community councils, the mining workers and their families to open more coal mines, after hearing the presidential proposal: agriculture, cattle breeding and tourism in exchange of more coal. On Thursday, the envoys paid by Mendoza abandoned the black script ordered by Obis Prieto (president of Carbozulia) and accepted the sustainable development proposal in exchange for the prohibition of coal mines. This initiative will be taken to Mara next Thursday.
If the coal mines, for all of which they represent, the global mourning of thousands of families that have lost their children and spouses; the social misery that they have caused in their path; the pollution of the soil, the air, and the water; the loss of the woods and rivers; are forever prohibited and if the Venezuelan state finally decrees the prohibition of coals mines in favor of sustainable agricultural and cattle breeding projects that are pro-life, then the eyes of world would find ourselves looking at an exemplary act of social justice and the beginning of a necessary change.
The coal mining and its plans, destroyed entire towns in Mara, destroyed woods and rivers, left the Bari indigenous people without a land, subordinated the indigenous leadership for decades, and left their own people subject to shame and rejection.
President Chavez, by saying today that there will be no more coal mines in Zulia, you are giving back hope for the future to the Wayúu de Mara and Páez people, to the indigenous of the Sierra de Perijá and to life itself. We are looking forward to the decree that will forever prohibit this dark curse.
SPANISH:
“Enterramos en caracas el fantasma del Carbón”
Por orden presidencial, Ministra del ambiente declara prohibición de nuevas minas de carbón en el Zulia
Por: Sociedad Homo et Natura/Colectivos ambientales/Comunidades indígenas Wayúu y Yukpa
Caracas, 21 de marzo de 2007.- Por una orden presidencial, la ministra del ambiente Yubiri Ortega de Carrizalez anunció ayer ante los pueblos indígenas Yukpa y Wayúu de la Sierra de Perijá la prohibición de abrir nuevas minas de carbón en el estado Zulia, quedando impedidas además, por el mismo mandato presidencial, indicó, las ampliaciones de las minas Guasare y Paso Diablo proyectadas por Corpozulia y su filial Carbozulia.
Ayer, la resistencia indígena de Perijá, los movimientos sociales y ecologistas movilizados a la toma del Ministerio contra la minería, sentimos que habíamos enterrado en Caracas el fantasma del carbón y toda su amenaza que por años golpea contra los pueblos indígenas del Zulia. Sin embargo, mientras no sean derogadas por decreto las concesiones mineras en tierras indígenas, la lucha continúa.
Estamos esperanzados, la ministra del ambiente, señaló en reunión con los caciques Yukpas, los Wayuu, la Sociedad Homo et Natura y medios comunitarios alternativos, que es orden del presidente Chávez, un nuevo modelo de desarrollo para la zona, el cual ya ha ordenado bajo criterios de ecología, siembra, turismo y desarrollo sostenible.
Sabemos que el poder trasnacional del carbón en el Zulia seguirá serpenteando la supervivencia, a toda costa, de su mega proyecto carbonífero. Quedan interrogantes como el futuro del Puente Nigales, Puerto América (hoy Puerto Bolívar) y los ferrocarriles del Zulia, todas, plataformas de salidas para los planes de los expansión de la minas de carbón que se pretendían abrir en territorios indígenas, ahora impedidas por mandato presidencial.
La ruina de los miserables
Martínez Mendoza, lanzó su estocada final, armando una contra marcha pagada, obligando a los consejos comunales de Mara, a los mineros y sus familias a solicitar la apertura de m’as minas de carbón, al oír el planteamiento presidencial: agricultura, ganado y turismo a cambio de no mas carbón, los emisarios pagados por Mendoza, abandonaron el negro guión ordenado por Obis Prieto (presidente de Carbozulia) el jueves en la hacienda Altamira y aceptaron la propuesta de desarrollo sostenible a cambio de la no minería carbón, iniciativa que el próximo jueves se llevará hasta Mara.
Si las minas de carbón, por todo lo que representan, el luto mundial de miles de familias que han perdido sus hijos, esposos, la miseria social que engendra a su paso, la contaminación de los suelos, el aire las aguas, la pérdida bosques, sus ríos, su biota; son frenadas para siempre. Si el Estado venezolano, decreta finalmente la derogación de las minas de carbón a cambio de la siembra, del pastoreo de lo sostenible, a favor de la vida, nos encontraríamos los ojos del mundo mirando el acto de justicia social ejemplo y principio del cambio necesario.
La minería de carbón y sus planes, acabaron pueblos enteros en Mara, acabó los bosques y los ríos a su paso, dejó sin tierras a los indígenas Barí, arrodilló durante décadas la dirigencia indígena y la sumió a la vergüenza y el desprecio de su propia gente. Decir hoy: ni una mina más de carbón en el Zulia, presidente Hugo Chávez, es devolverle la esperanza de futuro al pueblo Wayúu de Mara y Páez, a los indígenas de la Sierra de Perijá, a la vida misma. A la espera del decreto que derogue para siempre esta negra maldición abrevadero del diablo.
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Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2007 11:20:46 -0800 (PST)
From: Global Response
Subject: VICTORY ! President decrees “
No New Coal Mines” / Venezuela
Dear Members of Global Response’s “Quick Response Network,”
Celebrate this wonderful victory with our campaign partners, the indigenous peoples and environmental organizations of Venezuela!
After more than a year of intense pressure, on March 21 President Chavez issued a Presidential Decree that no new coal mines will be built in the Sierra de Perija, and no expansion will be permitted in existing coal mines. “By saying today ‘Not one more mine in Zulia state,’ president Hugo Chavez brings back hope for the future of the indigenous peoples of the Sierra de Perija and for life itself,” said the Wayuu and Yukpa communities in a press release.
The Sierra de Perija along Venezuela’s northwestern border is home to Wayuu, Yukpa and Bari indigenous peoples who have vigorously protested explorations in their territories by multinational coal companies. The indigenous communities rejected collective land titles offered by the Chavez administration because the titles excluded the sites of new mines slated for development this year.
In January 2006, I was among thousands of participants in the World Social Forum who marched with people from the Sierra de Perija through the streets of the capital, under banners that read “NO AL CARBON” (No to Coal). I visited their remote communities and, with the help of the environmental NGO Homo et Natura, developed a Global Response campaign to internationalize their struggle (see http://www.globalresponse.org/gra.php?i=1/06)
Muchisimas gracias to everyone who wrote a letter to president Chavez for this campaign. Pro-Chavez people told us we shouldn’t campaign against his policies. Anti-Chavez people told us he would never respond to international pressure. We campaigned for the rights of the indigenous peoples and for protection of a magnificent, biologically rich forest ecosystem, as we do all around the world. The indigenous communities kept up constant protests against the mines until yesterday – when they won! It is very sweet to celebrate this victory with them!
Paula Palmer, Executive Director
Global Response
MORE RECENT NEWS ON INDIGENOUS COMMUNITY IN VENEZUELA:
Fernandez: Community participation benefits Yanomami health care
Indian Country Today March 23, 2007. All Rights Reserved
Posted: March 23, 2007 by: Noly Fernandez
As Venezuela’s vice minister for the Popular Power of the Indigenous People of Urban Areas, I had the privilege in March to present the innovative achievements of our Yanomami health project, which targets a particularly segregated indigenous community in Venezuela, before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Washington, D.C. As one of the few indigenous representatives in the Venezuelan government, I try to bridge the gap of understanding between our indigenous communities and the larger Venezuelan society, which marginalized us for so long.
For decades, the Yanomami, among the most isolated of our indigenous people in the Venezuelan/Brazilian Amazon rainforest, were subject to persistent incursions to their territory, particularly by illegal gold miners. The intruders brought not only new diseases such as malaria, but social illness as well - something that many Indian peoples throughout the world know all too well.
In December 1996, a number of human rights organizations acting on behalf of the Yanomami community of Haximu petitioned the IACHR in connection with the 1993 massacre of 16 Yanomami people by Brazilian miners known as Garimpeiros. The petition alleged that the Venezuelan government failed in its obligation to protect the Yanomami. It wasn’t until 1999 that the Venezuelan government, led by President Hugo Chavez, agreed to work with the nongovernmental organizations under IACHR mediation to provide security and carry out health care projects in the Yanomami community.
The Yanomami health project was established then in an effort to target the indigenous community in the areas of health, education, the environment and general awareness. The endeavor aims to protect the ethnic group which, according to the 2001 Census, numbered approximately 12,000 people. In the past, only 30 percent of Yanomami received health care assistance.
The Yanomami health project was finally up and running in 2005 and it served the entire community. The first part of the three-phase plan included the creation of an infrastructure to rescue and expand the current health care network that had been neglected. The second stage involved the improvement of the quality of care and the establishment of a database to record every disease in their community; moreover, it created the District Unit of Health in Alto Orinoco, where the Yanomami reside. The final stage consisted of the training of Yanomami and non-Yanomami personnel with a socio-political-multicultural perspective in order to incorporate into their health care system both Western and traditional healers.
The Yanomami health project increased the number of doctors in the area, brought needed medicines, electricity, communications, equipment, and even an ambulance and 16 aircrafts to transport people, food and medicines to areas of difficult access in the extensive jungle. These recent achievements were possible due to the cooperation of national, regional and - most importantly - the direct participation of the Yanomami community.
Today, not only are the Yanomami people receiving the care to which they are entitled based on the Venezuelan Constitution, but they are also being trained to deliver that care. To date, 25 Yanomami members have gone through an intensive bilingual (Spanish and Yanomami) training program to become health care providers in their communities. These new providers are supervised by doctors, who are being trained in the Yanomami medical methods provided by Mother Earth.
Cultural and intercultural diversity are indeed challenges that must be evaluated in order to understand how we, as a part of the larger world, should adopt positive attitudes to learn from different concepts of health and life to benefit every member of our society.
Having the space and the will to understand those we serve in Venezuela made the Yanomami health project a success and a model for other communities. And now we, the indigenous people and communities of Venezuela, are determining our own destiny with generous resources from the state. For the first time in our history, we are developing our communities as we see fit.
Noly Fernandez is a native Venezuelan from Pueblo Wayuu of the clan of Epiayuu. She is the vice minister for the Popular Power of the Indigenous People of Urban Areas of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Her e-mail is pueblos.indigenas@yahoo.com.
http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096414735
=============================================
SPANISH
Carta de Opinión por Noly Fernández
Indian Country Marzo 28, 2007
Los Derechos de los Indígenas en Venezuela se Respetan
El 5 de marzo de 2007, como Vice-Ministra para el Poder Popular de los Pueblos Indígenas de las Zonas Urbanas de Venezuela, tuve el privilegio de presentar los logros innovadores de nuestro Plan de Salud Yanomami, el cual se enfoca particularmente en comunidades indígenas que han sido segregada en Venezuela, ante la Corte Inter-Americana de Derechos Humanos en Washington, DC. Como una de las pocas, pero en aumento, representante indígena en el gobierno de Venezuela, he tratado de crear el espacio de entendimiento entre nuestras comunidades indígenas y la sociedad Venezolana en general, quienes por mucho tiempo nos ha discriminado.
Por décadas, los Yanomamis, entre los pueblos indígenas más aislados en la gran selva amazónica de Venezuela-Brasil, han sido sujetos a invasiones persistentes en su territorio, particularmente por mineros de oros ilegales. Estos intrusos han traído no solo enfermedades como la malaria, sino también calamidades sociales.
En diciembre 1996, un grupo de organizaciones de derechos humanos representando a la comunidad Yanomami del pueblo de Haximú, presentaron una demanda a la Corte Inter-Americana de Derechos Humanos (con sus siglas en ingles, IACHR) en conexión con la masacre ocurrida en 1993 en donde 16 Yanomamis fueron acecinados a manos de mineros brasileños conocidos como Garimpeiros. La petición establecía que el gobierno Venezolano falló en su obligación de proteger a los Yanomamis. No fue sino hasta el año 1999, cuando el gobierno Venezolano, luego dirigido por el Presidente Hugo Chávez, acordó en trabajar con estas organizaciones de derechos humanos bajo la mediación de IACHR para así proveer seguridad y llevar a cabo proyectos de salud en el área en donde habita el Pueblo Yanomami.
Así fue que a través de un gran esfuerzo hacia la comunidad indígena, el Plan de Salud Yanomami se estableció para abarcar las áreas de salud, educación, ambiente y atención en general para proteger a la etnia, las cuales de acuerdo a datos preliminares del censo indígena 2001 suma al rededor de 12 mil personas. En el pasado, solo 30 por ciento de esos 12 mil Yanomamis recibían atención en salud.
En el 2005, el Plan de Salud Yanomami finalmente se puso en marcha para servir a la comunidad Yanomami entera. Este plan, que consiste en tres fases, tiene como primera parte la creación de una infraestructura de rescate y expansión de la red ambulatoria existente. La segunda base envuelve la mejora de la calidad de atención y el registro epidemiológico; además, se creó una unidad de mantenimiento del Distrito Sanitario Alto Orinoco, zona en donde reside la etnia Yanomami. El paso final consiste en la formación de personal Yanomami y no-Yanomami desde el punto de vista técnico socio-político y multicultural para así poder incorporar en su sistema de salud ambas fuentes, la occidental y la tradicional indígena.
Concretamente, el Plan de Salud Yanomami incrementó el número de doctores en el área, trajo más medicinas, plantas eléctrica, equipos de comunicación, e inclusive, entre otros, una ambulancia y 16 avionetas y helicópteros para poder transportar a la gente, alimentos y medicinas a áreas de difícil acceso con extensa jungla. Estos logros recientes fueron posible debido a la cooperación de agencias gubernamentales a nivel nacional, regional y, sobretodo, la directa participación de la comunidad Yanomami.
Hoy, no solo el pueblo Yanomami esta recibiendo el cuidado que merece basado en nuestra Constitución Venezolana, sino que también están siendo entrenados para que ellos mismos den ese cuidado. Hasta ahora, veinticinco miembros del pueblo Yanomami han sido capacitados por medio de un entrenamiento bilingüe (Español e idioma Yanomami) para ser los promotores de salud indígena en sus propias comunidades. Estos nuevos promotores son supervisados por doctores, quienes a su ves han recibido entrenamiento acerca de los métodos de salud proveídos por la Madre Tierra que son utilizados por los Yanomamis.
El tema de diversidad cultural e interculturalidad es un reto que nos plantea a todos y todas la necesidad de entender como nosotros y nosotras como parte de una gran sociedad debemos adoptar actitudes positivas que nos permitan aprender como los diferentes conceptos de salud y vida benefician a todo los miembros y miembras de nuestra sociedad.
Teniendo el espacio y el deseo de entender a esas personas a quienes servimos en Venezuela hizo que el Plan de Salud Yanomami fuese todo un éxito y un modelo para otras comunidades. Y ahora nosotros, los pueblos y comunidades indígenas de Venezuela, finalmente estamos determinando nuestro propio destino con recursos generosos por el estado, y por primera ves en nuestra historia estamos desarrollando comunidades bajo nuestra propia visión.
Noly Fernández, es Indígena del Pueblo Wayuu del clan Epiayuu. Ella es la Vice-Ministra para el Poder Popular de los Pueblos Indígenas de las Zonas Urbanas de Venezuela. Su correo electrónico es pueblos.indigenas@yahoo.com