In the face of the bloodshed that occurred in the Parima B area, the signatories to this statement, members of the Indigenous Peoples, Communities and Organizations of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, express our total and absolute solidarity with the Yanomami People, who were “vilely massacred” by members of the National Armed Forces stationed in the ancestral lands of the Yanomami and Ye’kwana.
Once again, the Armed Forces of Venezuela have dishonored their uniforms with the murder of four (4) members of the Yanomami people, including a woman, in a massacre that also left several wounded and was perpetrated through the unfair use of the weapons of the State and its military superiority, by attacking the physical integrity of the indigenous people who have been the ancestral guardian of the territory and guarantor of national sovereignty in the Venezuelan Amazon.
The regrettable annihilation of the victims occurred for ignoble and futile reasons after the community requested a group of officers of the Armed Forces to return a wireless router that provides the residents with an internet connection, a human right guaranteed by the United Nations in resolution A/HRC/32/L.20. The military officers refused to return the device that the Yanomami community had lent them, thus violating their human rights and their right to freedom of expression and information. The refusal by the military to return what belonged to the community brought tension, aggression and death to the members of the Yanomami people.
In the face of this abuse, WE CONDEMN AND REJECT the actions of the officials of the national armed forces responsible for this massacre. WE DEMAND that the National Government impart justice, clarify the facts and punish those responsible for these crimes, as well as the enforcement of the respect for the fundamental rights of indigenous peoples, established in the national and international regulatory framework signed by Venezuela.
We condemn the murder and femicide perpetrated against an indigenous woman by the officers responsible for guaranteeing territorial and border security, in violation of the human right to life and the individual and collective rights of indigenous women who, in the exercise of their right to self-determination, live in conditions of voluntary isolation or limited contact.
We urge the authorities of the national justice system (judges and prosecutors of the Public Ministry and the General Directorate on Human Rights of the Office of the Attorney General, as well as investigative bodies) to listen to the indigenous authorities and leaders; recognize the land rights over the spaces that the indigenous peoples have traditionally occupied, where indigenous customary law regulates the life of the community, as guaranteed in the Organic Law on Indigenous Communities and Indigenous, and understand that this system of rules is applied in the Yanomami territories to preserve the balance, harmony and coexistence between the members of the community. We reject all acts of xenophobia and racial and gender-based discrimination that result in the geno-ethnocide of an original people that has maintained and preserved the ecological balance of the Venezuelan Amazon for millennia through its wisdom. This raises the Yanomami indigenous people as the bearer of knowledge and practices considered material and immaterial cultural heritage of the country and humanity.
We alert the national and international organizations that advocate the human rights of the indigenous peoples about the frequent brutal attacks against members of the Yanomami people and other indigenous peoples. In this sense, we also commemorate the massacre committed by Groups of Brazilian Garimpeiros (miners) against members of a Yanomami community in Haximu almost 30 years ago and the inaction of the Venezuelan State in taking effective judicial and legislative measures to protect and guarantee the rights of the Yanomami people. We also bring attention to the acts committed by a DGCIM command against a group of Pemón brothers in Canaima – Gran Sabana, Bolívar state, in November 2019, that left one person dead and a yet to be clarified incident.
Given the repeated acts of violence that show the systematic violation of fundamental human rights and the rights of indigenous peoples, caused by acts of the civil and military authorities in the habitats and territories of our people, the signatories:
1. Clarify before our Indigenous Peoples, the Civil and Military authorities, national and international public opinion that the incident in Parima B that led to the execution of 4 Yanomami brothers is the responsibility of the Bolivarian and socialist State, and those who acted disproportionately on its behalf, with the weapons of the Republic and against a defenseless population, must be prosecuted and sentenced.
2. Demand the review of the role of the Bolivarian Armed Forces, as well as of the civil and police authorities, located in the indigenous territories, who make disproportionate use of the public force in opposition to the peaceful forms of conflict resolution of the indigenous peoples in their traditional lands and habitats.
3. Request the exhaustive assessment of whether Civil-military Unity is being effectively implemented in the indigenous territories under the spirit and mandate of Supreme Commander Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías.
4. Call on the Office of the Attorney General and other auxiliary justice bodies to initiate an objective investigation regarding this incident and other acts that violate the human rights of indigenous populations.
5. Declare that these recent cases, as well as other incidents that have occurred in indigenous territories, must be heard by the indigenous jurisdiction, pending the application of justice, and not be diverted to the military Jurisdiction, as has already happened in other cases, where they risk ending in judicial limbo, and where the truth of the most vulnerable is overshadowed by the procedural truth.
6. Suggest the installation of permanent work and dialogue tables to solve current and future conflicts in the indigenous territories, which would serve as mechanisms of interaction between the representatives of the indigenous peoples, communities and organizations with civil and military Government authorities.
7. Urge President Nicolás Maduro Moros, our members of the National Assembly, regional legislators, councilors and other indigenous spokespersons elected by popular vote, the indigenous organizations and institutions to firmly and jointly condemn this new, unfortunate and tragic aggression that afflicts our indigenous peoples.
8. Warn the right-wing media and their national and international political spokespersons of refraining from using and misrepresenting this statement as an attack against our Government, the revolutionary process and the Bolivarian Armed Forces that we defend and will continue to defend until our last breath. We are requesting JUSTICE and the activation of the necessary mechanisms to remove the evils of impunity, classism and racism that remains within the institutions of our Bolivarian State, all of which operate in Indigenous Territories
From the diversity of our Sacred Territories, we demand JUSTICE FOR THE YANOMAMI PEOPLE AND NO MORE IMPUNITY
MARCH 2022
SIGNATORIES
INDIGENOUS PEOPLES AND ORGANIZATIONS:
- Unión de Pueblos Indigenas de Amazonas, UPCIAVEN.
- Asociación Civil de Mujeres Emprendedoras Bare, JAKANI JINATATI BALE, Amazonas.
- Asociación Civil TEMENDAWI, Amazonas.
- Red de Defensores de derechos Humanos, derechos Indigenas y derechos de la Naturaleza, Amazonas.
- Comité Indígena, Puerto Samariapo, Municipio Autana, Amazonas.
- Escuela de Idioma Indígena Bare, Amazonas.
- Red de Estudios de la Diversidad del Sur (RedSur).
- Comité de Derechos Humanos de la Guajira.
- Fundación de Asistencia Global Indígena.
- Organización Indígena Wayuu Orindeiwa.
- Movimiento de unidad Wayuu Añu Wakuaipa de RioNegro, Machiques.
- Organización Wayuuwaka.
- Fundación de Artesanos indígenas del Zulia (FUNDAWALEKER).
- Organización Chaima Sucre.
- Organización Autónoma de Putchipuu de la Guajira, Venezuela.
- Organización Binacional de Mujeres Wayuu.
- Fundación LUMAA.
- Menca Yacame, 12628998, Bare.
- Rosa Petit, 8947877, Bare.
- Yarit Rodriguez, Bare.
- Olga Melguero, 12469592, Baniva.
- Nieves Azuaje, 6377977, Bare.
- Nieves Lopez, 8901098, Baniva.
- Belkis Bueno, 8947122, Baniva.
- Diana Frontado, 16766788, Baniva.
- Silvestra Gonzalez, 4780893, Bare.
- Mirleny Guerrero, 10921790, Bare.
- Luz Fernández, 9721353, Wayuu.
- José David González, 11065331, Wayuu.
- Tito Poyo, 5550679, Kariña,
- José Poyo, 8851778, Kariña.
- Rusbel palmar – Wayuu.
- Carmen Paz Reverol, 11295356, Wayuu.
- Tawanui Guillen, 9790972, Wayuu.
- Esmérita González – Wayuu.
- Ángel Vargas, 12967379, Chaima.
- Isnardy Méndez Coa, 4820087.
- Librada Pocaterra, 7890869, Wayuu.
- Emelindro Fernández, 11287276, Wayuu.
- Miguel Avaristo, 8946011, Baniva.
- Karin Herrera, 15749246, Wayuu.
- Adolfo Caldera, 10452244, Wayuu.
- Yan Josué Palmar Barroso, Wayuu.
- José Manuel Larreal, 3266616, Wayuu.
- Arquímedes Velásquez, 11005025, Chaima.
- Delia González, 9706350, Wayuu.
- Esmérita González, 13004891, Wayuu.
Translated by Jose Rafael Medina
