The guarantee of the rights of indigenous peoples and communities is provided for in the 1999 Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Among other mandates, the Constitution orders the demarcation of their habitats and territories guided by the Organic Law on Indigenous Peoples and Communities. Almost two decades later, this demarcation has not occurred, bringing important consequences to their daily life and the enjoyment of their rights.
According to the 2011 population census carried out by the National Statistics Institute (INE), indigenous people represent 2.7% (724,592) of the national population (27,277,930). 443,544 indigenous people live in the Zulia region, accounting for 61.2% of the national indigenous population — 72.3% of them are literate, just above the national average of 70.8%.
The indigenous people in Zulia make up 12% of the total population of the region (3,704,404). The Wayuu (404,651), Añú (20,688), Yukpa (2,784), and Japreria (156) have their habitat here. The Wayuu people are not only the majority in the Zulia region (91.23%) but also in the entire country (57.05%), where they are present in every federal state.
The Guajira Peninsula, shared by Colombia and Venezuela, is the ancestral territory of the Añú and Wayuu peoples. Military and police presence from both countries is common in this border region, especially in La Guajira county where the main border crossing is located. According to the 2011 census, 65,545 people lived there and 88.25% of them (57,843) were indigenous. As of June 30, 2018, the INE’s population projection for La Guajira county is 75,022 inhabitants.
In the following report, I will describe the living conditions in La Guajira regarding Health and Nutrition.
A Chaotic Health System.
The difficult situation faced by the country in terms of healthcare and medical supplies is felt harsher in La Guajira, where health centers open their doors despite lacking medical supplies and well-staffed units because workers cannot arrive at their workplace due to lack of public transportation and cash to pay for the bus tickets.
Emergency rooms collapse after every blackout as this causes hospitals to go completely dark and patients to be taken outside or are referred to another hospital in Maracaibo or Colombia (shortly less than 2 hours away by car).
Mayret Fernández can attest to the prevailing conditions at the emergency room: “15 days ago I brought my brother who received a gunshot wound in an attempted robbery, We came here to seek help but arrived in the middle of a blackout. The doctors told me there was nothing they could do and suggested I take him to another place. I had to take him to a clinic in Maicao, Colombia on my own because there are no ambulances here. ”
These episodes of chaos were more common during January and February and peaked in late March when the town suffered blackouts that extended for several days.
Despite the censorship imposed by the Mayor of La Guajira county and the Regional Health Secretariat of Zulia state, we had access to records provided by the resident physicians who admit that January and March saw an upturn in cases of diarrhea and fever in minors and the elderly, reaching 250 cases treated in the emergency units of the Paraguaipoa and Sinamaica Hospitals. Also, 410 cases of the viral syndrome, 200 of fever, and 15 of hepatitis were treated, figures that do not generate any type of alarm among the authorities.
In general, health care conditions worsen without any response from the authorities. This critical situation is repeated in Sinamaica Hospital, where mosquitoes pose a high risk of a dengue outbreak. Similarly, other health centers have become empty shells where all the medical supplies must be brought by the patient who must purchase them in pharmacies that sell the products in foreign currency at unaffordable prices to the indigenous population.
Diseases and Contexts
According to José Fernández, a local epidemiologist, one of the most common causes of diseases registered in La Guajira is the poor quality of the water consumed by the people. The main sources of water are artisanal wells or aqueducts located around residential areas where open-air defecation is common. Nutrition is also a factor affecting good health, but local indigenous communities have two meals a day at most, and many times they do not contain protein.
Covid-19 and the Health Crisis.
The first cases of Coronavirus in the country wreaked havoc among the residents of La Guajira who, faced with a collapsed health system, feared the worst as confirmed by Abraham Granda, a Paraguaipoa resident: “If our health system cannot cope with a simple outbreak of diarrhea in 5 children, you can imagine how bad it would be with a pandemic”. He argued that people are in a panic because the electrical power service, medical supplies, and the overall medical capacity of the facilities do not meet the expectations of the patients. Even more, the biosafety conditions for the hospital personnel are not sufficient to prevent the spread of the virus.
After March, only patients looking to get an injection, measure their blood pressure, or deliver dare to visit the hospitals. The rest of the patients avoided coming to them to prevent catching the virus since hospitals are not disinfected or supplied despite COVID-19 cases being registered a few kilometers away.
On May 27, one of the main towns of La Guajira was declared under radical lockdown by the Venezuelan state. The Binational Hospital of Paraguaipoa was affected by the measure after a nurse tested positive for Covid-19 according to the health authorities who did not give any further details. Access to the hospital was completely banned, leaving the people with no place to go in case of an emergency.
Seven days later, without even confirming the nurse’s case, the Nicolás Maduro government announced that the health center would become a ‘Sentinel Hospital’, a dedicated facility fully supplied to treat patients with Covid-19. However, the residents of the town took to the streets on June 8 to call on the government not to take over the hospital because it does not meet the minimum conditions and, if activated for this type of service, could create an outbreak of contagions since security and hygiene controls are not followed. Despite the residents’ request, the decision remained firm and the Sentinel Hospital began operations without receiving any type of supplies or biosafety gears for medical personnel and patients.
After this decision, a Comprehensive Diagnosis Center (CDI) became the only option available to the population. This center provides hospital services and is staffed by Cuban and Venezuelan doctors, but remains in even worse conditions than the Hospital due to a wiring problem that keeps it off the electrical grid and lack of supplies to house patients. Just under 30 kilometers away, two other health centers are available: Sinamaica Hospital and Karouya CDI, both about to be closed due to their unsanitary conditions, recognized by the health authorities after an April which sought to enable them as medical reception centers for returnees crossing through the Paraguachón border.
Amid the state of alarm due to the pandemic in the county, two bus lines were activated for medical personnel, who assure that they run short very often because government officials have precedence over health personnel. In terms of patient transportation, only two ambulances provide service to the entire county and their response capacity is minimal because the vehicles lack operators and they are only equipped with basic supplies such as needles, gauze, and alcohol that are reserved for strict emergencies.
Child malnutrition
Malnutrition is one of the most serious problems in La Guajira. In recent years, the Guajira Human Rights Committee has warned of the worsening situation.
The closure of the border crossing by the Nicolás Maduro administration, in force since September 2015, has affected the economy of the area that relies on agriculture, fishing, and trade.
The situation worsened after Colombian President Iván Duque ordered to block access to the main roads and the illegal crossings on March 14, 2020, seeking to prevent the spread of the pandemic.
This had serious consequences as La Guajira county and the western region of Venezuela rely on food supplies informally traded with Colombia, leading to renewed food shortages and causing the closure of the food centers operated by international agencies to care for Venezuelans in a situation of extreme poverty, that left the indigenous people of the region at the mercy of hunger and a rapid rise in the rate of malnutrition.
Malnutrition affects both adults and children. Families’ food consumption was significantly reduced, in some to a single daily meal low in fat, calories, and protein. Likewise, the water sources are contaminated or simply exhausted as a result of the severe drought and the lack of sanitation of artisan wells.
After the declaration of the national state of alarm issued by the Venezuelan state, La Guajira has not been exempted from quarantine and harsh controls and repression against the population. Hunger worsened while the government announced a special plan of action to address the needs of the indigenous communities at the borders, consisting of the distribution of eighteen food items every month. This plan does not meet the demand of the population since a family of four consumes the provision in just six days, not to mention that the majority of the Wayuu and Añú families in the locality are made up of more than nine members. This allows us to presume that the coming days will be disastrous amid a paralysis due to the COVID-19 quarantine in the country.
With exhausted food supplies, the local population took to the streets to demand food and better public services. The protests revealed faces of hunger and misery: on April 11, 2020, children and adults gathered on the Caribe international road to decry that “Coronavirus is starving us.” Infants and the elder took part in this peaceful protest, they were crying from hunger and were only asking for food.
The border county registered 20 to 50 cases of severe malnutrition in 2016, but cases increased in the second quarter of 2020 along with deaths by starvation.
On May 30, 2020, in Los Robles, southern Guajira, a six-month-old infant died as a result of starvation. According to her parents, they were not able to buy baby formula because the family did not have any money. The most unfortunate thing about the situation is that the girl had a twin sister who also died a week before from the same cause.
On June 4, 5 years old Kathiuska Hernández died in Ariguapa. According to her mother, Marelbis González, the minor was crying from hunger, collapsed days later and died. None of these cases has a medical report determining the causes of their death, but their parents argue that the lack of income and the tight controls due to quarantine have left them with no options to earn a living.
Although these cases are publicly known, no one has been able to address the situation. More than 100 similar cases of families suffering from food insecurity at critical levels have been reported, including the case of Mairibel González, a woman of the Wayuu people who lives in the Marichein community with five disable and malnourished children.
This long list is joined by some 10 families of the Añú ethnic group residing in El Arroyo, who claim to consume only one meal a day consisting of plain soup or stewed fish. Seventy malnourished people live in this community, who often spend a full day without consuming any food
Sinamaica Lagoon, hunger and isolation.
The Sinamaica Lagoon is one of the largest environmental reserves in Zulia state and northern Venezuela, and home to the Añú indigenous people, who traditionally used boats and canoes, but more recently dry wood or pieces of plastic to move around.
More than 8 communities live in the area, with 90% of the population in extreme poverty. Fishing used to earn them a living but it has stopped due to water pollution caused by fuel trafficking.
In December 2016, a report issued by the Human Rights Committee of La Guajira documented the serious situation of the indigenous people in the area, where children and adults suffered from hunger. Since then, about 80 cases of malnutrition have been registered, 10 of them fatal.
As of 2020, malnutrition continues to affect the existence of this population, who have noticed a decline in their living conditions. Food consumption has decreased sharply, leading to the consumption of only four meals a week per family, an alarming figure that the authorities choose to silence in the face of the political crisis afflicting the country.
Food is not the only need in these communities. Only 5% of the population in the lagoon have access to drinking water, the rest have to consume water from the river, polluted by fuel and fecal waste.
Libia Govea, director of the New World School in the Sinamaica Lagoon, affirms that “before the quarantine, we took notice of 25 cases of malnutrition in the school and the community, with parents simply unable to care for their children and left to watch them decay in the middle of isolation. These families are not cared for by the state or by any other entity and continue to rely on God for survival”.
The figures shown by the school allow us to verify the recounts. Stunted children with wrinkled skin and yellowish hair demonstrate the devastation that hunger has wreaked on their bodies, most of them less than 12 years old. Disable children and the elderly are the most vulnerable amid this situation.
The ongoing deterioration of the country and the absence of public health and food policies in the area jeopardize the lives of more than 200 people who bear the indelible consequences of hunger and malnutrition.
Translated by: José Rafael Medina.
