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Chavez, missionaries go home, land for indigenous peoples
Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has brought native populations closer and further alienated the United States in one fell swoop. He did it during a very symbolic ceremony on October 12, the anniversary of the “discovery of America” which in the Latin-American country has been re-baptized the Day of Indigenous Resistance. On this occasion Chavez in fact presented various indigenous groups with land titles for thousands of hectares of land. Hundreds of natives went to the village of Barranco Yopal, in the Amazon state of Apure, to attend the event during which the president also ordered the expulsion of North American evangelic missionaries belonging to the “New Tribes” sect.
The property titles cover 665 847 hectares of land destined to four different indigenous communities – the Cuiba, the Yuaruro, the Warao and the Karina – a total of three thousand people.
It is not the first time that Chavez has returned land to indigenous people: he also did it two months before acknowledging ownership of 127 thousand hectares of land to six groups from eastern Venezuela. “We are doing what is right”, commented the president who believes that defending the rights of Venezuela’s 300 thousand indigenous people is a priority. “Now we can start saying that there is a country for them”. In fact the new Bolivariana constitution from 1999 recognizes that these communities collectively own ancestral lands. But poverty continues to afflict many indigenous people and not all are satisfied with the results obtained as demonstrated by the protests of some Wayuu, Bari and Yukpa.
Chavez has also fought against the activism of evangelic sects from the United States accusing them of cultural imperialism, spying and avoiding customs checks by using private planes. For the “New Tribes” missions the sentence seems irrevocable: they must leave.
(20/10/2005)
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