Members of Venezuela’s indigenous peoples “cannot move freely across their territories, they are threatened and forced -especially young people- to join irregular armed groups or to participate in illegal activities as drug traffickers,” denounced Raúl Cubas, coordinator at the Venezuelan NGO Observatory on the defense of life. The pro-government Ombudsman’s Office is yet to set a position
Concerned about illegal mining and its environmental repercussions, indigenous leaders called for action to protect the Amazon, plagued by drug trafficking and guerrilla groups.
“We used to live next to huge gold deposits and we didn’t care, our livelihood was based on small-scale farming or fishing… Today people want to go down that path of environmental destruction,” Piaroa Narcisa Pereira, a member of the commission that visited the Ombudsman’s Office, told AFP.
“Many have been brainwashed by non-indigenous people who have gone to work in the mines,” she pointed out.
Illegal mining groups proliferate in the southern Venezuelan states of Bolívar and Amazonas, rich in gold and other minerals.
Indigenous populations “cannot move freely across their territories, they are threatened and forced -especially young people- to join irregular armed groups or to participate in illegal activities as drug traffickers,” denounced Raúl Cubas, coordinator at the Venezuelan NGO Observatory on the defense of life (Odevida).
Structural damage
“In one single family, some members are dedicated to mining while others work with drug traffickers… the ancestral traditions are being lost,” Mr. Cubas added. “20 years ago, indigenous youth followed the guidelines of their parents in the sense of defending the territory, the water, their traditions; all that has now collapsed, it is structural damage”.
On May 28, a group of indigenous people attacked a military post in the Amazon jungle with bows and arrows, in a case that the Armed Forces linked to a seizure of supplies used in the irregular activities. At least 14 people were arrested.
The leaders denounced a rise in the prevalence of diseases such as colon cancer in the area -allegedly due to the contamination of rivers with mercury- and an increase in school dropouts.
“The armed group takes them to work in the mines, and some people leave their children in the care of their grandparents to go work in the mines; This is very sad,” Pereira said.
The pro-government Ombudsman’s Office has not set a position on the document presented by the commission.
Translated by José Rafael Medina
