The contemporary political history of
Native Americans in Venezuela

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The history in general of Native Americans in Venezuela

Amazonian Indians request support

From the Forest Peoples Programme, 4 July 1996. Legislation dividing the Amazon State into electoral municipalities undermines indigenous peoples' control of their lands and destinies. The law is being contested in the courts, but the local government has nevertheless gone ahead with the dismemberment of the area. The indigenous peoples call for international support.

The next passing of the new law of the Political-Territorial Division of the Amazonas State, Venezuela, by the Legislative Assembly

Information Source: Organizacion Regional de Pueblos Indigenas de Amazonas (ORPIA) f Oficina de Derechos Humanos Vicariato de Puerto Ayacucho, 19 November 1997. Because of the nullification of the law of the Political-Territorial Division of Amazonas, the Legislative Assembly moved to refuse the rights of the Indigenous communities that make up for more than 50% of the total population of Amazonas.

National Guard Attacks Indigenous Protesters

Weekly News of the Americas, 30 August 1998. the Venezuelan National Guard violently attacked Mapauri, a 50-family Pemon indigenous community located inside the Canaima National Park in Bolivar state. The Mapauri residents had peacefully blocked construction crews from working on a 450-mile power line that would stretch from Venezuela to Brazil through indigenous land.

Indigenous Conquest in Jeopardy

By Estrella Gutierrez, IPS, 4 June 1999. A recent historic victory by Venezuela's indigenous peoples, the direct selection of three representatives to sit on a Constituent Assembly to rewrite the constitution, is in jeopardy of being distorted by maneuvres by the 'white man',

Yanomami Indians, Guinea Pigs of US Scientists

By Andrés Cañiz lez, IPS, 1 November 2000. Experiments to which Yanomami Indians were submitted in the late 1960s have shaken public opinion since the early October publication of the book Darkness in El Dorado: How Scientists and Journalists Devastated the Amazon, by investigative journalist Patrick Tierney.