Through a statement, the Human Rights Committee of La Guajira rejects the events of early April 12, 2020, in the community of Guarero, Guajira Municipality, Zulia State, in which Guarero-based military personnel assigned to the Detachment 112 of the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB), attacked a peaceful demonstration of citizens of the Wayúu people who had been demanding access to food, drinking water, and medicine amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Together with the closure of the border and electrical power outages, this keeps the Wayúu people as one of the most nutritionally vulnerable groups in the region.

The facts

Early on Saturday, April 11, 2020, the Wayúu people in Guarero peacefully protested to demand food, drinking water, and medicine, after their precarious lives worsened as a consequence of the quarantine imposed by the Venezuelan State amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Adults and children, youth and the elderly of the Wayúu ethnic group demanded from the Mayor Indira Fernández an emergency plan to immediately address the basic needs of the Wayúu people, who claim to be starving to death because they cannot reach the UN food center located in Paraguachón and do not benefit from the CLAP food program, which does not reach the population in addition to being conditioned to political motives.

The peaceful protests of the Wayúu people continued in Guarero during the morning of Sunday, April 12, due to the lack of concrete response from the municipal and regional authorities to the demands of the population. They continued to peacefully demand food, drinking water, medicines, and the presence of the Mayor. Then, military officers assigned to Detachment 112 of the Bolivarian National Guard attacked the peaceful protest of adults, children, and the elderly to suppress it, without mediating words and using disproportionate public force.  The officers threw pepper spray and fired rounds of pellets and bullets against the protesters, resulting in 46-year-old citizen Lisbeth del Carmen González being hit by a pellet in her left cheek. The victim, belonging the Jusayuu clan and holder of identity card No. 10,017,365, had to be transferred to the Colombian border city of Maicao to be treated in a private clinic of since there are no medical supplies in healthcare centers in the Guajira Municipality.

The protesters claim a GNB Lieutenant surnamed Castro allegedly shot from the roof of the 112 GNB Detachment building, aiming at Lisbeth González amid the repression of the peaceful protest of the Wayúu people.

Legal basis

Article 1 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples establishes that Indigenous peoples have the right to the full enjoyment, as a collective or as individuals, of all human rights and fundamental freedoms as recognized in the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international human rights law.”

Article 5 of the American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, establishes the full validity of human rights, therefore indigenous peoples and individuals have the right to the full enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms recognized in the Charter of the United Nations, the Charter of the Organization of American States, and in international human rights law.

The Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Article 19, indicates that “the State will guarantee to every person, without any discrimination, the enjoyment and inalienable, indivisible and interdependent exercise of human rights. To respect and guarantee them are obligatory for the organs of the Public Power under this Constitution, with the human rights treaties signed and ratified by the Republic, and with the laws on the matter.” Likewise, it recognizes the existence of indigenous peoples and communities (Article 122), the Right to Health (Article 3) and the Right to adequate food (Article 305).

The Organic Law on Indigenous Peoples and Communities states in Article 1 that “The Venezuelan State recognizes and protects the indigenous peoples and communities as aboriginal peoples, guaranteeing them the rights enshrined in the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, international treaties, pacts, conventions, and other rules of universal acceptance, as well as the other laws of the Republic, to ensure their active participation in the life of the Venezuelan Nation, the preservation of their cultures, the exercise of self-determination on their internal affairs and the conditions that make them possible.

The request

Considering all of the above, and the fact that the Wayúu people have been discriminated for many years and the fundamental rights of their children, adults, and elders continue to be violated amid the COVID-19 pandemic; Being in the presence of a  Human Rights violation against Lisbeth Gonzalez, a member of the Jusayuu clan of the Wayúu people, wounded by a pellet shot from the GNB, the Guajira Human Rights Committee DEMANDS the Venezuelan State:

1) To immediately, impartially, and transparently investigate the events that occurred in the town of Guarero on the morning of Sunday, April 12, 2020.

2) To appoint the Office of the Public Prosecutor with jurisdiction in Fundamental Rights to investigate these events and determine responsibilities throughout the chain of command of the Bolivarian National Guard.

3) To carry out the complaint procedures and defend the rights of the victims and the Wayúu people through the Ombudsman’s Office, Zulia section.

4) To urge the Bolivarian National Armed Force in the indigenous territory to respect the rights of the Wayúu and Añu peoples in La Guajira and stop all kinds of violent acts against their inhabitants and their ancestral authorities as established in Article 260 of the National Constitution.

5) To urge the Minister for Indigenous Peoples, Aloha Núñez, to work on solving the food, nutritional, healthcare, and public services crisis suffered by the indigenous peoples of La Guajira, following Article 9 of the Organic Law on Indigenous Peoples and Communities, and implement education and training programs for civil and military public officers who work on Wayúu and Añu indigenous lands.

6) To urge Mayor of the Municipality of La Guajira, Mrs. Indira Fernández, and Governor of the State of Zulia, Mr. Omar Prieto, to fully assume their functions and address the plea of the Wayúu people and, in a timely and effective manner, fulfill their obligations in food, healthcare, and drinking water supply before the population while respecting their identity and dignity.

La Guajira, April 13, 2020.

José David González

General Coordinator of the Guajira Human Rights Committee.