The Santa Elena de Uairén Massacre: eight indigenous people have been killed by the police and the military in protests between 2017 and 2019
Eight indigenous people, belonging to the Pemon, Warao and Jivi ethnic groups, were assassinated by agents of the Venezuelan public force during protests in the states of Delta Amacuro, Apure and Bolívar, between September 2017 and April 2019. The alleged perpetrators, members of the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB), the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM), the Navy and the Delta Amacuro Police Department acted under the already usual pattern of excessive use of force to contain demonstrations, using firearms and causing these unfortunate deaths.
Repression and death to silence hunger
On September 23, 2017, two young men from the Warao community, José Gregorio Moraleda Zambrano (21) and Jomas José Alcántara (19) became victims 140 and 141 of the 142 people who died in the context of protests in 2017. Both were killed by gunshots allegedly fired by officers of the Bolivarian National Guard and the Delta Amacuro Police while repressing a demonstration for food, which was taking place near a Mercal warehouse located in the Antonio José de Sucre parish of the state capital, Tucupita.
Witnesses of the events declared that “the demonstrators began to retreat and run in search of shelter. However, the troops fired directly at the mass and the two men fell.” A resident declared that “it was not a confrontation, as the Government wants to show. The state police and the National Guard fired at the indigenous people who were demanding food. “Several shots were heard and one of the young men fell immediately. Five people were wounded by bullets.” The protest originated because the Warao community settled in Janokoseve had spent 45 days without receiving any food from the Local Supply and Production Committee (CLAP).
The Public Ministry charged 10 police officers, and the Third Control Court issued a custodial measure for the police and military personnel involved in the incident. The officers under investigation are Joel María González (22), Lesguar Alexander González Morillo (34), Ledymar del Valle Sánchez Martínez (23), Jonnattan de la Cruz Trinitario (37), José Gregorio Martínez Call (25), Carlos Rafael Azócar (22 ), Rigson Boanerge Martínez Rojas (25), Gleyvins José Flores Álvarez (28), Jesús Rafael Gascón Pereira (27) and Yoenner Figueroa (23).
DGCIM murders in Canaima
On December 8, 2018, a group of officers from the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM) used their firearms to wound four members of the Pemon community in Arekuna, Canaima, Bolívar state. One of the victims, identified as Carlos Peñazola, was killed in the event. “The officers entered the Campo Carrao sector early this morning. Four people had gunshot wounds to the chest, including Charly and Carlos Peñazola, the latter of whom died”, indicated Pableysa Ostos, a journalist for Correo del Caroní.
The wounded were transferred to the Ruiz y Páez University Hospital Complex in Ciudad Bolívar, while the 6th Prosecutor’s Office of the Public Ministry opened the investigations into the incident. In response to what happened, the indigenous community retained and disarmed two DGCIM officers.
On December 12, the Council of General Caciques (Indigenous leaders) of the Pemón People released a video in response to the statements made by former Minister of Defense, Vladimir Padrino López, who assured that the death of the victims was the responsibility of the “gold mafias that occupy Canaima National Park”. In a statement addressed to public opinion, the members of the Council denied Padrino López’s version and accused him of being a “coward”, “thief”, “liar”, “murderer” and “mobster”, while urging him to quit his position.
State terror in Santa Elena de Uairén
During February 22 and 23, 2019, the Bolivarian National Guard and alleged members of paramilitary groups repressed with excessive violence the demonstrations registered in Santa Elena de Uairén, in the extreme south of Bolívar state, in support of the entry of humanitarian aid to the country, in the framework of the call made by the then president of the National Assembly, Juan Guaidó.
In the events, 58 people were arrested (16 members of the Pemón indigenous community and 4 teenagers) and transferred to Fort Escamoto. The General Hospital of Boa Vista in Brazil reported that it had received 23 patients with gunshot wounds -13 of them in serious condition-, between February 22 and 24. Seven people died as a result of the shots fired by military officers, four of them belonging to the Pemón community and identified as: Zoraida Rodríguez (46), José Esley Pérez Márquez (20), Kleyber Pérez (24) and Rolando García Martínez (51). The deaths of these seven people occurred between February 23 and March 3, since many seriously injured eventually died in the Boa Vista hospital.
Murders, arrests and illegal raids
Witnesses told Provea that in the morning of January 23, residents of Santa Elena de Uairén marched peacefully toward the border with Brazil to support the entry of humanitarian aid to the country, in the context of the activities called by the Venezuelan Parliament. In front of the entrance to Fort Escamoto, the GNB prevented the passage to the border. As they began to approach and concentrate to try to pass, they were repressed with tear gas and pellets at first, but later the military officers began to shoot them with firearms, wounding dozens of people.
At the same time, a peaceful protest was taking place in the city center of Santa Elena de Uairén for the entry of humanitarian aid, the repression there followed the same pattern, but according to witnesses, the shots came from large-caliber automatic weapons and with the participation of armed civilians. The shots were directed straight to the body and head. The repression lasted all morning until noon.
In the afternoon, the GNB installed several checkpoints in several places, taking the protests to an end. The military body also stationed troops at the entrances of the local hotels, where officers carried out illegal raids to find the mayor of Gran Sabana, Emilio González, and indigenous and non-indigenous representatives and leaders. The Rosario Vera Zurita Hospital reported at least 30 injured, the most serious transferred to the state of Roraima in neighboring Brazil. There were 25 detainees distributed between Fort Escamoto and the GNB command. In total, at least 58 people were detained between February 22 and 23.
On February 28, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) adopted Resolution 7/2019, by which it granted precautionary measures in favor of indigenous defender Baré Olnar Ortiz and indigenous persons of the Pemon ethnic group in the San Francisco de Yuruaní or “Kumaracapay” community of Gran Sabana Municipality in the State of Bolívar, after considering that they face a serious, urgent situation of risk of suffering irreparable damage to their rights.
In a press release posted on its website, the IACHR reported that at the time of making its decision, “the Commission took into consideration the exceptional current context in the State of Venezuela and the possibility that the events in question were a consequence of actions carried out by the community to receive ‘humanitarian aid’ on the border between Venezuela and Brazil. Such events allegedly involved excessive use of force and the participation of groups that the people who requested these precautionary measures called “colectivos.”
The Navy invades indigenous territories and kills in Apure
Wilmer Antonio Mirabal (38) was shot dead on April 10, 2019, at the hands of members of the Fluvial Command located in the La Macanilla, Pedro Camejo municipality of Apure state. Mirabal, a member of the Jivi ethnic group, was taking part in a protest with members of his community to demand the withdrawal of the military presence in his ancestral territories. They were repressed with firearms by the military officers who were in the area. Due to these events, lieutenants Edwuar Antonio Ysambertt (36) and Oswaldo Enrique Carrasco (32), and sergeants Roniel Francisco Velásquez (26) and Kervin José Hernández (26) were deprived of liberty.
Tensions, abuses and murders in the context of militarization and exclusion
Since 2013, Provea has permanently insisted on the serious risks that the militarization of indigenous territories and communities entails, without prior, free and informed consultation with the affected groups as dictated by the Constitution and international standards. Since 2010, when the Wayúu indigenous territories were militarized in Venezuelan Guajira, hundreds of abuses have been reported, including more than 19 murders of members of the Wayúu and Añú peoples; hundreds of cases of torture and cruel treatment against indigenous people; arbitrary detentions and illegal raids on homes in the towns of Paraguaipoa and La Raya on the border with Colombia.
On February 24, 2016, Nicolás Maduro, in the Council of Ministers, promulgated Decree no. 2,248 through which the so-called Orinoco Mining Arc Special Strategic Development Zone was created; a mega-mining project that is developed on the southern banks of the Orinoco River between the states of Bolívar and Amazonas, a vast region inhabited by indigenous communities. This project was imposed without respecting the right to prior, free and informed consultation of the affected indigenous peoples and without any type of environmental impact study. The militarization of indigenous territories to safeguard the economic interests of national and transnational corporations that exploit natural resources in this area increased abuses and tensions between the State and indigenous peoples.
In 2017, one year after the murder of the Honduran indigenous activist, Berta Cáceres, Provea and the NGO Laboratorio de Paz warned that unilateral and authoritarian decisions, as well as the violation of the right to demarcation, environmental and cultural impact studies, access to information, free and informed prior consultation and consent for extractive models, and the lack of good faith during the process created the conditions for the murder of Cáceres and, unfortunately, this situation is being repeated in Venezuela. After the imposition of the Orinoco Mining Arc, dozens of leaders and members of indigenous communities in the state of Bolívar began to be harassed and coerced into joining the project.
The dispossession of territories and the conditions of exclusion derived from a situation of Complex Humanitarian Emergency put at risk the existence of populations in conditions of vulnerability such as the Pemón, Warao, Wayúu and Añu indigenous peoples, among others. This situation of territorial displacement, submission to hunger and ignorance of rights pushed the Waraos of Delta Amacuro to protest in 2017, the Pemones of Canaima to stand up to the DGCIM in 2018 and the Pemones of Santa Elena to demand the entry of humanitarian aid in 2019. For all of them, the response was the same: repression and abuses that revictimize the most excluded.
Translated by José Rafael Medina
